Department of Geography
Discussion/tutorial meetings, Wednesday 9:00-11:00
Whole class meetings: Wednesday 11:00-12:00 Geography room 200
Discussion Groups in Geography rooms 130(LIA), 214(L2B)
Instructor: Graeme Wynn, Geography (1984 West Mall, Room 236)
phone: 604-822-6226
email: [email protected] (this is the best way to reach me)
Office Hours: Wednesday 1:30- 3:00 or by appointment
Teaching Assistant:
xxxx Geography, room 247
Office Hours: Wednesday 1:00-3:00pm
This course examines changing attitudes towards nature. It is an integral part of the Environment and
Sustainability Major in Geography, it reflects the long tradition of inquiry into human-environment
relations in Geography, and it should be of considerable interest to students of environmental history.
Its approach is historical and humanistic, and its ultimate goals are understanding and wisdom, rather
than the hypothesis testing, the quest for empirical regularities and the search for “explanation” (in a
positivist sense) associated with the Geographical Biogeosciences and some social scientific
approaches to human geography. By reading and discussing historical arguments and contemporary
documents we will uncover the underlying assumptions about the world that were characteristic of
different periods in the history of Western culture. Particular emphasis is given to the emergence of
environmental concern since the nineteenth century. An underlying question is whether contemporary
concerns about sustainability require fundamental changes in the way we conceive of ourselves or our
environment.
A) ORGANIZATION:
This class is carefully designed to offer high-quality seminars and to improve students’ writing, critical
thinking analytical and presentation skills. These goals impose obligations on students, the instructor
and the teaching assistants. Students must commit to a steady diet of thoughtful, critical reading, to
active participation in seminars, and to the completion of regular small writing assignments. The course
outline is designed to assist students in meeting the first two of these goals and the instructor and TAs
are committed to providing constructive feedback on student writing and more generally assisting them
in the development of communication, presentation and analytical/ critical thinking skills. The class
meets once a week, on Wednesday morning (9:00-12:00). There are two concurrent Discussion
Sections (L1A, L1B,) scheduled for the 9:00-11:00 period. Students in each Discussion Section will be
assigned to one of two Tutorial Groups. For the first two weeks and the last two weeks of term
discussion groups will meet “as a whole” (ie both tutorial groups in each discussion section meet from
9:00 to11:00); for the rest of the term Tutorial groups will meet separately for one-hour tutorials (for
which meetings alternate between 9;00 and 10:00 am weekly). Between 11:00 and 12:00 each
Wednesday the whole class will meet together, variously to share and contextualize issues discussed in
the Tutorial Group meetings, to broach larger interpretive questions and, importantly, to develop a
collective perspective on issues of fundamental importance to finding one’s own (and shaping
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society’s) approaches to the environmental challenges that confront us all early in the 21st century.
Alert, engaged participation in Discussion/ Tutorial groups and the whole class meetings is essential
and students should note the mark allocation procedures for these activities.
B) DESCRIPTION, RATIONALE and LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
This is a course about ideas and their effects. It starts from the conviction that if we are to solve
environmental problems we must understand their roots - that is, we must understand the attitudes,
behaviours and ways of thinking that have given rise to these problems. To do this we must reexamine the ideas we have come to accept as conventional wisdom. By completing this course,
students will come to appreciate the shifting, contingent character of environmental thought. They will
learn the importance of questioning sources and their assumptions, and the relevance of context to
understanding peoples’ views and convictions. In doing this they will also gain important perspective
on present concerns and debates.
Over the past two decades, many organizations and individuals have examined the nature and
magnitude of today’s environmental problems. The conclusions of these studies have differed on many
particulars. But there has been broad agreement, even among representatives of usually conflicting
positions, that environmental problems are now (i) global as well as local (ii) that they are serious and
getting worse, and (iii) that they cannot be solved without major changes in attitudes, behaviours and
ways of thinking.
For all that, ideas about how to proceed vary greatly. We can envisage these as forming a continuum of
somewhat overlapping and sometimes internally inconsistent positions arrayed between two end points
that might be called modest tinkering and major rethinking. Some analysts, adopting the first of these
views, advocate reforms without significant alterations to modern ideology - the now predominant
assumptions about the external world and how it works, and about human nature and social
relationships. Others, the rethinkers, disagree. They hold that there is something basically wrong with
how we have been treating the environment and each other, and that we must challenge the current
conventional wisdom about the world and our place in it. There are differences of opinion, within this
group, about what is wrong and about how to respond to the challenges, but for the most part its
members believe that the problems we face are fundamental and require radical changes in the ways in
which we think about the human place in nature. This is not a merely academic debate. Virtually all
choices about environmental goals, strategies and tactics turn, at least to some degree, on views about
whether reforms or more radical changes to basic ideology are needed.
In the end, GEOG 423 is devoted to examining this problem. It focuses on the ideas that underlie
modern environmental attitudes and behaviour, what they replaced, and what effects they had, with a
view to better understanding human relations with the nature, and to making students more effective
members of civil society. Students in this course will improve their abilities to identify and analyze
these crucial connections, and develop a firmer sense of the challenges they (and the societies of which
they are a part) face in the future.
GEOG 423 is also designed to improve students’ communication skills, by requiring different types of
writing, by providing all students with detailed feedback on their written submissions, by asking
students to be reflexive about their learning and by engaging them in review and commentary on work
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by their peers. Students should improve their ability to produce clear, cogent writing and critical
analysis, and begin to become effective self-editors. Carefully-designed Tutorial Group assignments
also hone communication skills by requiring students, variously, to collaborate, to present material
verbally, and to engage in discussions (with peers) of important ideas and arguments. Feedback on
class presentations and related activities should also sharpen students’ communication skills.
C) READINGS:
COURSE TEXT: Bill McKibben, ed., American Earth: Environmental Writing since Thoreau (New
York: Library of America, 2008)
This is a big book (at a reasonable price) and you are not required to read all of it. However, its pages
contain much of relevance week-by-week and the schedule directs students to these sections as
appropriate. But do not be confined by this. Anyone interested in environmental issues should find
much of interest in the broad and rich array of material in this book. Follow your bliss. Selections are
short, and learning and understanding are cumulative—the more you engage the better you will grasp
the issues.
I have also provided a pair of reading lists, carefully selected from a very wide and markedly diverse
range of literatures, and organized by topic and week (with the Discussion/Tutorial List more focused
and confined than the additional reading list). Almost all of this material is available in digital form and
free of charge; those required items that are not readily available in this form have been placed on
reserve in Koerner or Woodward Library.
Readings for the tutorials and whole class meetings MUST be done in advance (as indicated in the
outline). Please pay close attention to the instructions/ guidelines and commentary provided for each
topic. This material is intended to help you use your study time more productively.
I do not expect any student to read all of the items on the general Reading Lists. HOWEVER, I do
believe that being a serious student is a serious business, that humanistic learning requires effort, and
lots of thoughtful reading—and that in a course such as this it is important that students engage with
classic/ influential/ original texts. With this in mind, I expect Geog 423 students to read about 100
pages of material a week from these lists (including materials assigned for the Tutorials). You have
some considerable choice. Rather than trim down the reading lists to 100 pages a week, and thus limit
your potential exposure to a wide and fascinating literature, I encourage you to pursue your particular
interests, and to read where these take you on our lists and perhaps beyond. You might consider
forming small study groups, to share notes and to discuss different readings. You will certainly benefit
from sensible, summative and interpretive note-taking as you move through the course material.
To sharpen their critical and communication skills students might find it useful to consult, and to
inwardly digest, the advice and insights to be gained from the following:
Jonathan Bennett and Samuel Gorovitz “Improving Academic Writing,” Teaching Philosophy, 20, 2
(June 1997), 105-120. Available at: http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/jfb/bengor.pdf . This is a
short, practical and useful guide for aspiring or uncertain writers.
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But they should also be mindful of the lively argument for the importance of good sense and cautious
judgment in all things in:
Geoffrey K Pullum, “50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 17
April 2009 (available at: http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar/25497 which is
also a reminder of the importance of developing competence and confidence in one’s own writing.
Or, as Princeton scholar Daniel M. Oppenheimer once observed in Applied Cognitive Psychology
[vol. 20, (2006) 139–156] "write clearly and simply if you can and you'll be more likely to be thought
of as intelligent."
D) ASSIGNMENTS
Students will submit, for grading, three short essays and a term paper. There is no final exam.
Final grades will be based on these contributions, and on tutorial and whole-class participation, as
follows:
Tutorial –15%: Students start the term with 15 Tutorial marks. Five marks are for attendance. One
mark will be deducted for each of the first and second absences; a third absence will deplete the tutorial
attendance mark pool to zero. Ten marks are for the written and otherwise ungraded tutorial
assignments indicated below (marked with ** in the Discussion schedule). Any failure to complete on
time will incur penalties similar to those for as non-attendance: two marks will be deducted for each of
the first two non-submissions; a third failure to complete reduces the assignment mark pool to zero.
Whole class discussions - 5%: Again these marks are for attendance. One mark will be deducted for
each of the first and second absences; a third absence will deplete this mark pool to zero.
In both tutorials and whole class meetings our first priority is to encourage everyone to be involved
thoughtfully in the discussions. Brilliance is not required. There will be no mark assigned for verbal
participation per se.
Essays – 50%: Each of three short essays will be graded out of 20 but the total marks received will be
decreased (by a factor of 0.83) so that these assignments account for half of the marks available in the
course
Term Paper – 30% (see below for details)
D.i) Essays: All essays will be submitted electronically to your discussion group leader by 11:59pm on
the due date, or before. You would be wise to begin thinking about each of these assignments well in
advance. They all require a certain amount of deliberation and thought, and will not be done successfully
in a last-minute rush. Assignments must be typed, properly referenced, and follow an accepted style guide
(as discussed in Northey and Knight, Making Sense, see above, or other style guide). Assignments will be
returned to students with detailed commentary (both substantive and editorial); students should incorporate
the lessons of these commentaries into future assignment submissions
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a) DUE DATE: 27 JANUARY 2015: write a reaction/ response to David Quammen, “Planet of Weeds,”
OR Barry Lopez, “A Presentation of Whales,” as found in the course text (pp. 874-97 or pp 696-715
respectively). Both these essays raise large questions about environmental attitudes and the environmental
course on which the world is set. Although Quammen begins, in a sense deep in geological time, it is
pointed to questions that are of great concern to many contemporary scholars, questions about habitat
destruction, biodiversity loss, and the fate of the planet. In rather different vein, Lopez offers a finely
observed essay about the stranding of a group of whales but brings readers to contemplate this incident
from a variety of angles, all of which tell us something about ways of thinking about the environment Read
either (or both) of these pieces and learn – about effective writing as well as about the parameters of an
important set of concerns. Then weigh your reactions to either Quammen’s arguments and his exposition of
them., or Lopez’s description and what it conveys about attitudes toward nature Successful responses
(which should be 750 words long) will take many forms. There is no template—other than that we are
going to reward clear thinking, careful reflection, well-organized argument and lucid prose.
b) DUE DATE: 24 FEBRUARY 2015: For this essay, students will read the John Burroughs materials in
the text (pp.145-71) and pay particular attention to the arguments of “The Art of Seeing Things” (noting
also the quality of Burrough’s topic sentences). They will then write a short essay inspired by “Nature Near
Home.” This should be 750 words long; the aim should be a clear, lucid piece that starts with close
observation (of ‘nature near home’ or some suitable alternative) and moves toward larger meaning. This is
an opportunity to write in a more creative style (say creative non-fiction), though this is not the only
possible genre to use. You will need to look and think and formulate a clear plan for this assignment, and
there is perhaps more room here for a “personal touch” than in the other assignments. You might also find
inspiration in Sanders essay, “After the Flood,” (text, pp.781-89) and /or in Meloy’s piece (text, pp.793808)
c) DUE DATE: 24 MARCH, 2015: write a careful, probing 750 word assessment of the excerpt in the
text (pp. 559-69) from Amory B. Lovins, “Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken.” This article was
published in 1976. You should read it carefully to identify its main arguments and then give substantial
thought to the way in which you will engage with these in your essay, which must be more than a simple
summary or précis of Lovins’s position. Here Lovins poses a crucial question that confronts us yet. He is
making a case – for what?—but how persuasive is his case (as Lovins made it in 1976 and as you read it in
2013)? Remember this is an assessment; you need to offer a considered set of opinions on the reading,
evaluate its contexts, and support your views with appropriate evidence.
In the interests of equity, penalties (2% per day) will be assessed for late submission of any the four
short essays
D.ii) Term paper: You have a choice between rather different assignments here
EITHER
A) Several items in the course text address, in one way or another, questions of what has come to be
called “environmental (in)justice.” Central among these are: Gibbs (pp. 609-21), Chavez (pp. 6905), Bullard (pp. 725-36), Williams (pp.739-59), Ray (898-906). Bearing in mind the standard
definition of environmental justice (“the right of everyone to enjoy and benefit from a safe and
healthy environment regardless of race, class, gender, or ethnicity”), read these and other sources
that bear on this topic as you see fit (consider for example the issues raised in the lecture and
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readings of March 8 as they might bear on this theme). Think about the framing of key terms in this
debate (eg. “acceptable risk”, the need for “things”, the unavoidability of waste Then write a 1500
word essay on environmental (in)justice in Canada (or part thereof). You may frame and focus your
essay pretty much as you wish but you would be well advised to address some or all of the
following questions: do minority communities and individuals bear more than their share of
environmental risks in Canada? What factors other than race and class discrimination might
explain the unequal distribution of environmental burdens and benefits? Are patterns of
environmental injustice aligned with the unequal distribution of other forms of benefits and
burdens? We will evaluate the essay on the following criteria: quality of writing; structure and
coherence of argument; robustness of connection with larger debates; acuity of insight.
OR
B) Select between three and six of the illustrations in the text (after p 224 and after p.736) and write a
1500 word essay on their relevance to ideas discussed in this course, the development of
environmental thought, or North American attitudes to nature. Your essay might contrast images,
select images that are complementary (speak to a similar theme or issue), or focus on particular
images and use them as springboards for a larger commentary. Although this essay begins in and
with a small handful of illustrations, its completion will require reference to the broader corpus of
work considered in this course (lectures/ discussions/ reading lists) and successful completion of
this exercise will require “background research” in whatever sources you might consider pertinent.
We will evaluate the essay on the following criteria: quality of writing; structure and coherence of
argument; robustness of connection with larger debates; acuity of insight.
Whether you choose A or B, this assignment must be submitted electronically before 11:59pm on
Friday April 10, 2014. Assignments must be typed, properly referenced, and follow an accepted style
guide
In the interests of equity, penalties (3% per day) will be assessed for late submission of the final
paper, unless permission has been given. Submissions more than one week late will not be
accepted, except in cases of documented illness or permission of the instructor.
Plagiarism and cheating are unacceptable to the university, and will be dealt with according to
University regulations. If you need clarification see “Plagiarism Avoided,” at:
http://www.arts.ubc.ca/arts-students/plagiarism-avoided.html
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E) SCHEDULE OF DISCUSSIONS/ TUTORIALS AND READINGS
This is a seminar course and small group discussions are an INTEGRAL part of the course. They all
have a dual purpose. On the one hand they require you to engage with the writings and ideas of
individuals who have made important contributions to environmental thought or they ask you to
sharpen your own ideas about this topic. On the other hand, these sessions are designed to hone your
writing and more broadly critical, analytic, thinking and communication skills.
From week 1 through week 3 (ie 4, 11, and 18 January) discussion groups meet as a group of the whole
for the 9:00 to 11:00 period. For 7 weeks thereafter the discussion groups will be divided into two
“tutorial groups” (A and B) which will meet for ONE hour, alternating between the 9:00 and 10:00 am
slots each week. For the last discussion period (3 APRIL) the A and B groups will reunite for a twohour session (9:00-11:00).
Weekly requirements are spelled out in detail below. For each date (eg 7 January) the first paragraph
indicates the foci of that week’s meetings. This is followed by a list of readings for the FOLLOWING
week (eg 7-14 January), that usually begins with instructions about the allocation of effort in the
Reading List, or bibliography that follows. NOTE that REQUIRED readings are highlighted in
turquoise. Generally this list is followed by “Reading Notes” intended to frame or guide your
engagement with the assigned readings. Sometimes small tasks related to the readings are assigned/
explained in these notes. Students MUST do the assigned readings for each week in advance, and also
complete the requisite tasks specified in the weekly descriptions. These tasks are highlighted in grey.
Readings signaled “TEXT, pp-pp” refer to Bill McKibben, ed., American Earth: Environmental
Writing Since Thoreau (New York: Library of America, 2008)
7 JANUARY - ORIENTATION
Discussion groups will meet for a two-hour period 9:00-11:00 am
This time will be used for course participants to introduce themselves and for discussion of tutorial and
discussion group expectations and organization.
Reading for week of 7-14 January
William Cronon, “Beginnings—Introduction: In Search of Nature,” being a version of the opening
essay of William Cronon, ed., Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, (New
York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1995) ((UBCLIB- RK) reprinted with introduction and
questions as pp. 26-48 of the 1998 Starker Lectures, Impacts of Different Philosophies on Natural
Resources (College of Forestry, Oregon State University) available at:
http://starkerlectures.forestry.oregonstate.edu/sites/starker/files/1998StarkerLectures.pdf
Additional Reading:
Robert Costanza et al., "Sustainability or Collapse: What Can We Learn from Integrating the History of
Humans and the Rest of Nature,” Ambio, 36,7 (2007), pp. 522-527 (UBCLIB ejournal) also available
at:
http://www.aimes.ucar.edu/ihope/documents/Costanza_2007_Ambio.pdf
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14 JANUARY – 9:00-10:40 ---FOUND OBJECTS
In the Cronon essay assigned for the week of 7-14 January, you will find the comment: “Donna
Haraway proposed that we begin by discussing what she called “found objects”: texts, photographs,
advertisements, paintings, anything that would exemplify as concretely and vividly as possible the
ideas of nature we wished to explore. Each of us, she suggested, should bring in an image or a text that
would force the group to think about nature in new and unexpected ways.” Your task for the first
part of today’s (14 January) tutorial is to bring to class such a found object and be prepared to
speak about it in terms relevant to your idea(s) of nature/ the environment and your hopes for
this course, while seeking to provoke others to reflect on environmental thought in new ways.
DURING THE LAST HOUR (10:50-11:50) we will use the found objects as the basis of a short, in
class writing exercise introducing descriptive and creative non-fiction writing, precis and
paraphrase.
Reading for week of 14-21 January
Class members will read at least three of the four readings listed below, after reviewing the
accompanying Reading Notes. Students will form groups of three or four to discuss the readings
among themselves (virtually or in person) before class meets. Each student will be assigned specific
responsibility for one of these four articles and submit a carefully prepared 400-word essay offering
a brief context-setting statement about the intentions and the author(s) of the article; a summary of
the article’s main arguments; critiques of these argument(s); and a summary/conclusion. This is to
be submitted electronically to your TA or Instructor by 5:00pm on Tuesday 20 January
Kenneth Boulding, TEXT, 399-404; for complete version see: “The Economics of the Coming
Spaceship Earth,” (1966), available at:
http://www.panarchy.org/boulding/spaceship.1966.html
Jill Ker Conway, Kenneth Keniston, and Leo Marx, “Introduction: The New Environmentalisms,” in
Earth, Air, Fire, Water: Humanistic Studies of the Environment, (Amherst MA: University of
Massachusetts Press, 2000), (UBCLIB- RK). Tps available at:
http://web.mit.edu/~kken/Public/PDF/Earth%20Air%20Fire%20Water.pdf
Raymond Williams, “Ideas of Nature,” in Problems of Materialism and Culture (London: Verso,
1980), 67-85 Available at: http://www.religionandnature.com/bron/courses/pdf/Williams-NatureIdeas.pdf
Lynn White Jr., TEXT 405-412, or see “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis,” Science, 155,
no. 3767 (10 March 1967), 1203-1207. (UBCLIB e-Journal)
Reading Notes:
The first challenge in this course is to better understand how human thought about (attitudes
toward) nature or “the environment” have shaped humans’ actions and inclinations to safeguard or
exploit, treasure or despoil, heed or disregard the material earth. We begin this exploration through
these readings and in the discussion on 22 January. The following notes are intended to guide you into
close and thoughtful engagement with the four items listed above.
In 1879, Henry George, author of a book titled Progress and Poverty, conjured an arresting
image: “It is a well-provisioned ship, this on which we sail through space. If the bread and beef above
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decks seem to grow scarce, we but open a hatch and there is a new supply, of which before we never
dreamed. And very great command over the services of others comes to those who as the hatches are
opened are permitted to say, ‘This is mine!’ (book IV chapter 2). Almost ninety years later, the brilliant
economist Kenneth Boulding elaborated a more complex view of the ship on which we sail through
space, in the classic essay listed below. This is an important reading, as background for much of what
we deal with in this course. Read it and think about it, about its timing, about its boldness, about its
prescience. Williams’ essay is a classic reflection on the many-faceted entanglements of humans and
environments. Written thirty years ago, by one of the most important figures in the British cultural
studies tradition it is still worth savouring for its luminous, learned, thoughtful and cleverly constructed
argument.
The piece by Conway et al, is a more recent reflection, by leading American humanist
scholars, arguing that effective solutions for today's environmental threats require that these threats be
located within their larger historical, societal, and cultural settings. Both these essays invoke a panoply
of “authorities” (philosophers, poets, scientists, every-day practice); do not be distracted or
disconcerted if many of these figures are unknown to you. Several will appear later in this course.
The Lynn White article is a “classic” that has been much debated. Here in 1966, White
postulated that convictions developed by Christian theologians in the Middle Ages lay at the root of
ecological crisis in the 20th century. In this view Judeo-Christian theology swept away pagan
animism and normalized exploitation of the natural world. In The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious
Account of Native People in North America the fiction writer Thomas King put the essence of this
argument pithily and memorably when he wrote: “Or, if you want the positive but somewhat callous
view, you might wish to describe Christianity as the gateway drug to supply-side capitalism” Whether
one accepts this or not, White’s insistence that "what people do about their ecology depends on what
they think about themselves in relation to things in their environment" is worth pondering.
Do not read these (or other readings in this course) simply to “get through them”, to “check
them off your to do list” or with the intent of “parroting them back.” First, triangulate or “triage” them
– make a quick but probing assessment of: their argument; their structure; their main message (it is
generally a good idea to read the introduction and conclusion of an article [none of your readings in this
class are detective novels or mysteries, so you are not spoiling things by checking out the ending]
before plunging into the substance). Then engage the text. Reading through it as though sleepwalking,
each sentence marking another footfall, is essentially a waste of valuable time. Look for, and note, the
pivotal points of the author’s argument. Ask yourself whether you agree; whether this or that point
accords with what else you know/ have read etc.
You will find it helpful, in engaging with these readings to select 3 short quotes (from
different readings) that strike you as either (a) particularly noteworthy or (b) central to understanding
the argument of the article. Bring these quotes to class on a single sheet of paper, with your name
upon it, and hand it to the instructor/TA. You should also be ready to explain and justify your
choice of quotes. Consider whether your quotes serve as summaries of (parts of) the argument, whether
they provoke new ideas (what are they?) or arrest your thinking (why? How?) Examples of the kinds of
quotes you might select are below. You might also ponder the many binary pairings in these essays,
and reflect on the use and significance of this trope.
"once we begin to speak of men mixing their labour with the earth, we are in a whole
world of new relations between man and nature, and to separate natural history from
social history becomes extremely problematic" (Williams)
“As human beings and adherents of a culture, therefore, we have no way of seeing other
than through the lens of our own culture, history, and personality. But the fact that we
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each see the world from a distinct context and a unique perspective in no way denies the
world's existence;” (Conway)
21 JANUARY: FRAMING THE QUESTIONS
TUTORIAL A 9:00-10:00 -- small group discussion of readings for this week.
TUTORIAL B 10:00-11:00 -- small group discussion of readings for this week.
WHOLE CLASS – Continuation of discussion, led by the two Tutorial A groups, who will use the hour
between 10:00 and 11:00 to consolidate their understanding of their preceding discussion
Readings for week of 21-28 January
Half the students in each tutorial group will read Chief Seattle and Nasdady (i); the other half
will read Jeffers and Nasdady (ii) All will read the items from the text
TEXT, 37-45 (Catlin), 570-89 (Momaday)
Chief Seattle Speech, Read version at:
http://messengersofthelight.com/Seattle.htm
Susan Jeffers, Brother Eagle, Sister Sky. A Message from Chief Seattle (New York, Toronto: Puffin
Books, 2002, c1991) Available at:
http://99ebook.com/read-file/brother-eagle-sister-sky-s-jaffers-2-2-mb-arvind-gupta-pdf%091465707/
Paul Nadasdy (i),“Transcending the Debate over the Ecologically Noble Indian: Indigenous Peoples
and Environmentalism,” Ethnohistory, 52:2 (spring 2005), 291-330 (UBCLIB e-journal)
Paul Nadasdy (ii), “The Politics of TEK: Power and the "Integration" of Knowledge,” Arctic
Anthropology, 36, 1/2 (1999) 1-18 (UBCIB e-journal)
Additional Reading:
"Indians and the Land: A Conversation Between William Cronon and Richard White," American
Heritage, 37, 5 (August-September 1986), 18-25 (UBCLIB e-journal)
Bruce E. Johansen & Donald A. Grinde, “Ennobling ‘Savages’,” Ch 4 of Exemplar of Liberty: Native
America and the Evolution of Democracy (Los Angeles: American Indian Studies Center,
UCLA, 1990) available at:
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/EoL/chp4.html
Shepard Krech, The Ecological Indian: Myth and History (New York: W. W. Norton, 1999)
(UBCLIB)
Michael E. Harkin and David Rich Lewis, Native Americans and the Environment: Perspectives on the
Ecological Indian (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007) (UBCLIB online)
J. Baird Callicott, “American Indian Land Wisdom? Sorting out the Issues,” Journal of Forest History,
33, 1 (January 1989), 35-42 (UBCLIB e-journal)
William Cronon and Richard White, "Ecological Change and Indian-White Relations," in Indian-White
Relations, ed. Wilcomb Washburn, Volume IV of Handbook of North American Indians, ed.
William Sturtevant (Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1989) (UBCLIB)
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P A Delcourt and H. R. Delcourt, Prehistoric Native Americans and Ecological Change: Human
Ecosystems in Eastern North America Since the Pleistocene (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2004)
Charles C Mann, “1491,” Atlantic Monthly, 289, 3 (March 2002), 41-53 (UBCLIB e-journal)
Paul Nadasdy, “Re-evaluating the Co-Management Success Story,” Arctic, 56, 4 (December 2003),
367-80 (UBCLIB e-journal)
Julie Cruikshank, “Legend and Landscape: Convergence of Oral and Scientific Traditions in the
Yukon Territory,” Arctic Anthropology 18, 2 (1981), 67-93 (UBCLIB e-journal)
Julie Cruikshank, “Uses and abuses of ‘traditional knowledge’: Perspectives from the Yukon
Territory,” in David G. Anderson and Mark Nuttall (eds.), Cultivating Arctic Landscapes:
Knowing and Managing Animals in the Circumpolar North (Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2003),
17-32 (available through Google Books, and for purchase from Berghahn)
Reading Notes:
This week’s work is intended to set you thinking further about some of the links between thought and
environmental actions, The short excerpt from the TEXT is by the famous painter of Indian life in the
American West, George Catlin. Written in 1841, it includes several ringing phrases and raises
questions of continuing importance.
Although it may appear rather simplistic, read the Chief Seattle material (ie either/ both the speech and
Susan Jeffers’s rendering of it) carefully. Ask yourself whether it is “internally consistent”: does it
contain anachronistic claims? How did Si'ahl a Dkhw'Duw'Absh (Duwamish) chief find such words to
express his ideas? What is the message of the speech and its rendition in Jeffers’ book? Can
indigenous views properly be described as “conservationist” or “environmentalist” (don’t these terms
describe specific and recent views)? Consider the following quotes and ponder the disjunction between
them: (i) “Perhaps the most important insight which can be gained from the Indian heritage is
reverence for the earth and life (J. Donald Hughes, prominent environmental historian in American
Indian Ecology) and (ii) “Save a whale, harpoon a Makah.” (Slogan used by protesters opposing the
hunting of whales by Makah Indians in Washington State).
After reading the above, turn to Nasdady and ask yourself whether any of the previous material bear s
on the idea of TEK and its embrace in the cause of modern environmental management? Why has it
been difficult to make use of TEK – according to conventional views and according to Nasdady? Does
the very idea of TEK work against the acceptance of indigenous societies and their views? How? In
the 19th century, Romantic poet William Wordsworth wrote: “We murder to dissect” (“Sweet is the
lore which Nature brings; Our meddling intellect Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:- We
murder…”). What relevance does this observation have to the effort to combine TEK and Science? It
is often said that “knowledge is power”: how does Nasdady “tweak” this claim?
28 JANUARY: INDIGENOUS ENVIRONMENTAL KNOWLEDGE
TUTORIAL B: 9:00 -9:50 – Considering the “Ecological Indian”
TUTORIAL A: 10:00-10:50 – Considering the “Ecological Indian”
WHOLE CLASS -- 11:00-11:50 – TEK and its discontents
11
Readings for week of 28 January – 4 February
All students must begin by reading the excerpt from Marsh in the TEXT and sample the Project
Gutenberg or UBCLIB versions of Marsh’s great book. ASSESS THE VALUE/ PRESIENCE
OR SHORTCOMINGS of its central arguments in a 250-word statement to be submitted
electronically to your tutorial leader by 5:00pm on 3 February. Before the tutorial students must
also read and be prepared to discuss either the Lowenthal (2000) article or the Wynn (2004)
article (as assigned by tutorial leader). All students will also view the Roosevelt video, and read
the Pinchot excerpt from the TEXT and the essay by Roderick Haig-Brown prior to the wholeclass discussion.
TEXT, 71-80 (Marsh) 172-80(Pinchot), 140-144 (Shaler)
George Perkins Marsh, Man and Nature (1864; reprinted, ed. David Lowenthal, Seattle: University of
Washington Press, 2003). (UBCLIB- RK). Also available as The Earth as Modified by
Human Action at Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6019
David Lowenthal, “Nature and morality from George Perkins Marsh to the millennium,” Journal of
Historical Geography, 26, 1 (2000) 3–27 (UBCLIB e-journal)
OR
Graeme Wynn, 'On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic' in Environmental History,” Environment
and History 10 (2004) pp. 133-151
View “Theodore Roosevelt: Conserving America’s Future” 10- minute video prepared for US National
History Day, available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCxf9eYWiaM
Roderick Haig Brown, “Let them Eat Sawdust,” pp.189- 96 of Measure of the Year: Reflections on
Home Family and a Life Fully Lived (W Morrow, 1950 and RP TouchWood Editions 2011).
On reserve in Koerner, on Connect site and available (but for p 194) at:
http://books.google.ca/books?id=Rng_21gQI9YC&pg=PA189&lpg=PA189&dq=Let+them+Eat+saw
dust&source=bl&ots=IGnpQdXelq&sig=bmAgXnNHrw4YJr_QGuQbfDgEf0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=b1LEUvv7HsHuoATQ2oG4Bg&ved=0CFEQ6AEwAw#v=onep
age&q=Let%20them%20Eat%20sawdust&f=false
Additional Reading:
Laurie Smith-Frailey, “The Dawn of Green: Environmental Movement Originates
in British Countryside,” Spectrum (Fall 2007) Available at:
http://spectrum.mit.edu/articles/normal/the-dawn-of-green/
Harriet Ritvo, The Dawn of Green: Manchester, Thirlmere, and modern environmentalism
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009) (UBCLIB)
George Perkins Marsh, Address Delivered Before the Agricultural Society of Rutland County,
September 30, 1847 Available from Amazon (Kindle) in digital form for $0.00 and at the
University of Vermont Libraries Center for Digital Initiatives
http://cdi.uvm.edu/collections/item/pubagsocaddr
Gifford Pinchot, The Fight for Conservation (New York: Doubleday Page and Co, 1910), Chapters
IV, VII, X and browse
Available at US Library of Congress “The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 18501920. Also available via Project Gutenberg and at:
12
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi:bin/query/r?ammem/consrv:@field%28DOCID+@lit%28amrvgvg
1
1%29%29:@@@$REF$
Samuel P. Hays, Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency: The Progressive Conservation Movement,
1890-1920 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1959). (UBCLIB)
David Lowenthal, “Forest Stewardship: Marsh, Pinchot and America Today,” Pinchot Institute for
Conservation Distinguished Lecture, April 6, 2001. Available as PDF at:
www.pinchot.org/?module=uploads&func=download&fileId=838
Reading Notes:
George Perkins Marsh has been hailed as “the fountainhead of the conservation movement,” and
due, in part, to the embrace of his ideas by a coterie of influential figures, from Lewis Mumford and
Carl Sauer to David Lowenthal, his 1864 book called Man & Nature has had a very large influence –
many facets of which we will explore this week. But as always it is good to be skeptical about some of
the claims made about those who are put on pedestals. In Lowenthal’s article you will find the author
referring to “provocative Marsh put downs” and claiming that GPM has been “scanted” by
environmental historians. I piled on to this debate in the Environment & History article. What do you
make of these arguments; might Lowenthal “protesteth too much”? What answers does Lowenthal give
to the question: “Why bother with this1864 environmental tract ‘full of facts that have since been
shown to be erroneous [and] conclusions that went sour’?” Why did Lowenthal decided to rewrite his
biography of GPM? Do you agree with Lowenthal’s claim: “It is not only the threats that are new, but
our notions of what and who to blame, how to curtail the risks and reduce the damage, and whether we
are apt to succeed?” “How [indeed] can Marsh’s insights be useful today?” What do you make of the
assertion that “To be valuable enough to care for, the environment must feel truly our own, not merely
a commodity but integral to our lives.” Reflect on the argument that broad, integrative knowledge (as
pursued by geographers Humboldt, Reclus etc) makes for more effective citizenship than narrow
highly-specialized learning. What might be the implications of this claim, if accepted? In the whole
class discussion we explore some of the ways in which Marsh’s ideas disseminated and examine an
important essay by a Canadian conservationist whose belief in the “wise use” of resources was being
challenged by the everyday practices he saw about him in British Columbia. These materials range
widely, but they are all of a piece and provide crucial perspective on matters of urgent current concern.
You should be prepared to talk about each of these articles and to explain/ defend your views on many
of them and the above questions in class. It might be helpful to bring brief notes in response to each of
these questions to the tutorial.
4 FEBRUARY – WISE-USE, CONSERVATION & GEORGE PERKINS MARSH
TUTORIAL A 9:00-9:50 -- Assessing Marsh
TUTORIAL B 10;00-10:50 – Assessing Marsh
WHOLE CLASS 11:00-11:50-- Prosperity and a diet of sawdust
Readings for week of 4 February- 11 February:
ALL Students will read the Thoreau and Muir excerpts in the TEXT as well as one of the articles
by Worster and the piece by Tauber prior to their Tutorial meeting. For the whole class
discussion, students must read the Cronon and Snyder items listed. There are ten questions in the
Reading Notes for our whole-class discussion You should come to that class (11:00-11:50 on 11
February) with thoughtful answers to at least three of these clearly organized and printed on a
13
single sheet of paper labeled with your name. This should be handed to your discussion group
leader at the beginning of the hour.
TEXT, 2-36 (Thoreau); 85-112 (Muir); 516-30 (Berry); 835-48 (Turner)
Donald Worster, “John Muir and the Roots of American Environmentalism,” Chapter 15 of The
wealth of nature: environmental history and the ecological imagination (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1993), 184-202 (UBCLIB online)
OR
Donald Worster, “John Muir and the Modern: Passion for Nature,” Environmental History, 10, 1
(January 2005), 8-19 (UBCLIB e-journal)
Alfred Tauber, “Henry Thoreau As a Mirror of Ourselves,” Bostonia, the alumni quarterly at Boston
University (Winter 2001-2002) available at: http://thoreau.eserver.org/mirror.html
William Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature,” in William
Cronon, ed., Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature (New York: W. W.
Norton & Co., 1995), 69-90. Available at:
http://www.williamcronon.net/writing/Trouble_with_Wilderness_Main.html
Also published in Environmental History, 1,1 (January 1996), 7-55, with comments by Samuel
P. Hays, Michael P. Cohen, Thomas R. Dunlap, and a response by William Cronon (UBCLIB
e-journal)
Gary Snyder, “Nature as seen from Kitkitdizze is no social construction,” Whole Earth, (Winter 1998),
Available at:
http://wholeearth.com/issue/1340/article/55/nature.as.seen.from.kitkitdizze.is.no.social.constru
ction
Additional Reading:
H. D. Thoreau, “Where I Lived and What I Lived For,” Chapter 2 of Walden (Boston: Ticknor and
Fields 1854 and many subsequent editions), (UBCLIB) also available through Project
Gutenberg at: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/205/205-h/205-h.htm#2H_4_0002
and at The Walden Woods Project:
http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Colle
ction
David Demeritt, “What is the ‘social construction of nature’? A typology and sympathetic critique,”
Progress in Human Geography, 26, 6 (December 2002) 767-790
(UBCLIB e-journal)
Eileen Crist, “Against the Social Construction of Nature and Wilderness,”
Environmental Ethics, 26 (Spring 2004), 5-24. PDF available at
http://www.umweltethik.at/download.php?id=435
John Muir, Let everyone help to save the famous Hetch-Hetchy Valley and stop the commercial
destruction which threatens our national parks [1911]. Available at US Library of
Congress “The Evolution of the Conservation Movement,1850-1920.”
http://memory.loc.gov/cgibin/ampage?collId=amrvg&fileName=vg50//amrvgvg50.db&recNum=0&
itemLink=D?consrvbib:1:./temp/~ammem_TH12::&linkText=0
Stephen Fox, John Muir and His Legacy: The American Conservation Movement (Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press, 1985) (UBCLIB)
Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind (4th ed., New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001)
(UBCLIB- RK)
14
Paul Sutter, Driven Wild: How the Fight Against Automobiles Launched the Modern Wilderness
Movement (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002) (UBCLIB- RK)
J. Baird Callicott and Michael P. Nelson (eds.), The Great New Wilderness Debate (Athens GA:
University of Georgia Press, 1998)
Reading Notes:
In an introductory essay on the Walden Woods Project website, Helen Bowdoin describes H Henry
David Thoreau as “an American original”. She notes that he “liked to get his feet muddy; all nature
was a tonic for him. Nearly every day, year round, he was out walking—exploring and studying every
nook and cranny in Walden Woods, Estabrook Woods, and the rest of Concord, and recording in his
journals in vivid detail what he heard and smelled and saw. … But beyond his superb talents as
observer and naturalist lay Thoreau's passion to explore deeper meanings in nature. ‘The hen-hawk
(red-tailed hawk) and the pine are friends,’ he wrote in his Journal in 1859. ‘What we call wildness is a
civilization other than our own.’ Writing in his classic book, Walden, about the ties between people and
nature, he says, ‘Our village life would stagnate if it were not for the unexplored forests and meadows
which surround it.’ And he adds, ‘We need the tonic of wildness, — to wade sometimes in marshes
where the bittern and the meadow-hen [American coot] lurk, and hear the booming of the snipe; to
smell the whispering sedge where only some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the
mink crawls with its belly close to the ground’. … . Watching Concord stripped of its forests for
farming and fuel-wood, and seeing the village expand into the countryside, Thoreau [argued that]
‘Each town should have a park, or rather a primitive forest, of 500 or a thousand acres, where a stick
should never be cut for fuel, a common possession forever, for instruction and recreation’. Today
Thoreau is seen by many as the [or one of the] father (s) of the twentieth century environmental
movement.
Our whole-class discussion engages with an idea – “that nature is social” – which geographers Noel
Castree and Bruce Braun claim [in Social Nature: Theory, Practice and Politics (Oxford Blackwell,
2001)] “not so long ago…seemed contradictory, even perverse.” [If you want to read more on
SocioNature or social constructivism see Demeritt and Crist or on the wilderness debate see Callicott
and Nelson, as listed in the additional bibliography] The idea became a focus of heated discussion in
environmentalist circles when William Cronon published “The Trouble with Wilderness. ” Why? What
does Snyder (see also Text, pp. 473-9) mean when he writes “Deconstruction without compassion is
self-aggrandizement”? Do you think Snyder is fair to Cronon/ accurate in portraying him as “antiwilderness’? Why is Snyder so exercised about the idea of “SocioNature”? What does Cronon mean
when he writes: “Satan’s home had become God’s Own Temple”? Describe the role of terrible awe
and nostalgic sentimentality in American views of the “wilderness.” What are “the specific habits of
thinking that flow from this complex cultural construction called wilderness” with which Cronon takes
issue in his essay? What is your reaction to Dave Foreman’s claim (cited by Cronon) that: “we believe
we must return to being animal, to glorying in our sweat, hormones, tears, and blood” and that “we
struggle against the modern compulsion to become dull, passionless androids”? Why would Foreman
make such an argument? How does Cronon think we might address the “unending task of struggling to
live rightly in the world”? These are the ten questions to three of which you should formulate answers
in advance of our whole-class meeting on 11 February (see above).
15
11 FEBRUARY -- FINDING SALVATION IN WILDNESS: THOREAU, MUIR et al
TUTORIAL B: 9:00-9:50 -- Walking with Thoreau and Muir
TUTORIAL A: 10:00-10:50 -- Walking with Thoreau and Muir
WHOLE CLASS: 11:0011:50 --THE TROUBLE WITH WILDERNESS
Readings for weeks of 11 -25 February
In preparation for the first tutorial after the mid-term break, students will read the John
Burroughs materials in the TEXT (pp.145-71) and pay particular attention to the arguments of
“The Art of Seeing Things” (noting also the quality of Burrough’s topic sentences). For the
tutorial itself students will write a short essay inspired by “Nature Near Home.” This essay should
be 750 words long; the aim should be a clear, lucid piece that starts with close observation and
moves toward larger meaning. SUBMIT AN ELECTRONIC COPY OF YOUR ESSAY TO
YOUR TUTORIAL LEADER BY 11:59 pm ON 24 FEBRUARY TO BE GRADED AS
ASSIGNMENT 2 (worth 10 marks). Also bring two copies of your essay to class; Hand one to the
instructor; the other will be loaned temporarily to another student. This student will present this
essay to the rest of the class; the reading should take no more than 4 minutes and there will be 2
minutes for responses/ discussion.
TEXT (pp.145-71)
25 FEBRUARY – FINDING LARGE MEANING IN CLOSE OBSERVATION
TUTORIAL A 9:00-9:50 -- eight presentations
TUTORIAL B 10:00 -10:50 – eight presentations
WHOLE CLASS – Remaining eight presentations
Readings for week of 25 February-4 March
All students will read the material from the TEXT and Meine. In addition, students in Tutorial
Group A will read Freyfogle and students in Tutorial Group B will read Callicott. Members of each
of these four groups will collaborate in advance to develop a 5-minute summary of the Freyfogle or
Callicott article (as assigned) and elect one or two spokespersons to present this to the whole- class
in the third hour of our 4 March session. The Cafaro article is provided for additional perspective
should you require it
TEXT, 266-94
Curt Meine, “Leopold's Evolving Legacy: Key Trends in Conservation Ideas, Science, and Practice,”
adapted from the preface of Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work (Madison WI: University of
Wisconsin Press. 2010) and available at: http://www.humansandnature.org/leopold-sevolving-legacy--key-trends-in-conservation-ideas--science--and-practice-article-94.php
Eric T Freyfogle, “Land Ethic,” in Callicott, J. Baird and Robert Frodeman, eds-in-chief, Encyclopedia
of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy (New York: Macmillan, 2009) pp. 21-6. Available at:
http://www.law.illinois.edu/content/faculty/publications/freyfogle_land_ethic_entry.pdf
J Baird Callicott, “The Land Ethic: Key Philosophical and Scientific Challenges ,” available at:
http://oregonstate.edu/cla/shpr/sites/default/files/ideas/callicott_landethic.pdf
Additional Reading:
16
Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac. And Sketches Here and There (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1949) (UBCLIB)
Philip Cafaro, “Thoreau, Leopold, and Carson: Toward an Environmental Virtue Ethics,”
Environmental Ethics, 23 (2001), 3-17. PDF available at:
http://www.umweltethik.at/detail.php?id=375&katid=310
Brown, David E. and Carmony, Neil B., eds., Aldo Leopold's Southwest. (Twenty-six early writings).
University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.1990) Originally published as Aldo Leopold's
Wilderness by Stackpole Books
Callicott, J. Baird and Freyfogle, Eric T., eds., Aldo Leopold: For the Health of the Land.
(previously unpublished essays and other writings) (Island Press/Shearwater Books,
Washington DC. 1999).
Flader, Susan and Callicot, J. Baird, edsThe River of the Mother of God and Other Essays by
Aldo Leopold (University of Wisconsin Press, Madison. 1991)
Leopold, Aldo, Game Management (Charles Scribner's Sons. 1933) Reprinted in 1986 by University
of Wisconsin Press, Madison.
Leopold, Aldo, A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. Oxford University Press,
New York, 1949)
Leopold, Luna B., ed., Round River: From the Journals of Aldo Leopold. Oxford University Press,
New York, 1953)
Meine, Curt and Knight, Richard L., eds. The Essential Aldo Leopold. University of Wisconsin Press,
Madison 1999)
Anderson, Peter, Aldo Leopold, American Ecologist (Franklin Watts/Grolier, New York, 1995)
Callicott, J. Baird, ed., Companion to A Sand County Almanac. (University of Wisconsin Press,
Madison, 1987)
Dunlap, Julie, Aldo Leopold-Living With the Land (Twenty-First Century Books/Henry Holt,
New York 1993)
Flader, Susan L., Thinking Like A Mountain: Aldo Leopold and the Evolution of an Ecological
Attitude Toward Deer, Wolves and Forests (University of Missouri Press, Columbia. 1974)
Lorbiecki, Marybeth, A Fierce Green Fire, an illustrated biography (Falcon Publishing Co.,
Helena, MT. 1996)
McCabe, Robert. Aldo Leopold, The Professor (Palmer Publications, Amherst, WI.1987)
McCabe, Robert, ed., Aldo Leopold, Mentor, (Department of Wildlife Ecology, University of
Wisconsin, Madison 1989)
Meine, Curt. Aldo Leopold, His Life and Work (University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 1988)
Reading Notes:
Aldo Leopold is one of the great figures of 20th century environmental thought. His Sand County
Almanac was virtually required reading among the generation that came of age in the late 1960s. It has
sold over 2 million copies and it still warrants thoughtful attention. Ecologist, forester and
environmentalist, he was also Professor of Game Management in the Agricultural Economics
Department of the University of Wisconsin- Madison. His observation that “A thing is right when it
tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends
otherwise” became something of a mantra. Other quotes from SCA elaborate on Leopold’s land ethic:
"Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land"; "The land ethic simply enlarges the
boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land";
“[J]ust what and whom do we love? Certainly not the soil, which we are sending helter-skelter down
17
river. Certainly not the waters, which we assume have no function except to turn turbines, float barges,
and carry off sewage. Certainly not the plants, of which we exterminate whole communities without
batting an eye. Certainly not the animals, of which we have already extirpated many of the largest and
most beautiful species. A land ethic of course cannot prevent the alteration, management, and use of
these ‘resources,’ but it does affirm their right to continued existence, and, at least in spots, their
continued existence in a natural state. In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from
conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellowmembers, and also respect for the community as such."
4 MARCH – DEVELOPING A LAND ETHIC WITH ALDO LEOPOLD
TUTORIAL B 9:00-9:50 – Knowing Leopold
TUTORIAL A 10:00-10:50 -- Knowing Leopold
WHOLE CLASS DISCUSSION – Examining the “Green Fire”
Readings for week of 4-11 March
All students will read the TEXT excerpt from Silent Spring, and sample sections of the book
itself. Then all students should read Allchin, “Rachel Carson and Silent Spring” before reviewing
one of the Cafaro items. In the whole class discussion we will reflect upon and seek to understand
the different impacts of Marsh’s Man and Nature (5 February) and Carson’s Silent Spring
TEXT, 366-76 (Carson)
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962) (UBCLIB) or a copy available at:
http://www.science.smith.edu/~jcardell/Courses/EGR100/protect/reading/SilentSpring.pdf
OR, if you are having trouble accessing the book, Rachel Carson,” Silent Spring,” A Reporter
at Large, The New Yorker, 16 June 1962, available in print edition in UBCLIB or for $5.99
download at:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1962/06/16/1962_06_16_035_TNY_CARDS_000271256
Douglas Allchin, “Rachel Carson and Silent Spring,” Ch 17 in Joel Hagen, Douglas Allchin and Fred
Singer, Doing Biology, Available at: http://www1.umn.edu/ships/db/carson.pdf
Philip Cafaro, “Rachel Carson’s Environmental Ethics,” Worldviews 6 (2002?), 58-80 PDF available
at http://www.umweltethik.at/detail.php?id=69
OR
Philip Cafaro, “Thoreau, Leopold, and Carson: Toward an Environmental Virtue Ethics,”
Environmental Ethics, 23 (2001), 3-17. PDF available at:
http://www.umweltethik.at/detail.php?id=375&katid=310
Eliza Griswald, “How Silent Spring Ignited the Environmental Movement,” New York Times Magazine
21 September 2012, Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/magazine/how-silentspring-ignited-the-environmental-movement.html?pagewanted=all
Linda J Lear, “Rachel Carson’s ‘ Silent Spring’,” Environmental History Review, 17, 2 (Summer
1993), 23-48 (UBCLIB e-journal)
To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Silent Spring, the Exploring Environmental History
podcast engaged Mark Wilson, a PhD candidate at the University of Northumbria in
Newcastle (UK) in a discussion of the book. Wilson who has compared the response to Silent
Spring in the US and Britain, argues that Silent Spring is a typical product of its time and was
18
closely connected with the Cold War and the rise of the counter culture on both sides of the
Atlantic. To listen to the podcast, go to the Environmental History Resources website at:
http://www.eh-resources.org/podcast/podcast.html#44
Additional Reading:
Linda J Lear, Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature (New York: Henry Holt, 1997) (UBCLIB- RW)
Robert Gottlieb, Forcing the Spring: The Transformation of the American Environmental Movement
(Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1993) (UBCLIB)
Thomas R. Dunlap, DDT: Scientists, Citizens and Public Policy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 1981)
Reading Notes:
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was a point of comparison for David Lowenthal in his discussion of
George Perkins Marsh’s relevance for the millennium (see Discussion: 8 February). There is no doubt
that this book is one of the pivotal works responsible for changing environmental attitudes in the last
half century. It is also beautifully crafted (no small reason for its popular impact). You should mark the
artistry with which Carson builds her case as you assess the importance and implications of her
arguments. Linda Lear’s biography of Carson (see additional bibliography) details the (now
astonishing) ways in which vested industrial interests sought to disparage and discredit her. In the
1960s, Robert White-Stevens, a spokesperson for the chemical industry alleged: "If man were to follow
the teachings of Miss Carson, we would return to the Dark Ages and the insects and diseases and
vermin would once again inherit the earth." Today websites claim that “Rachelwaswrong” and that Ms
Carson’s book could have been responsible for killing more people than the holocaust. What was/is the
basis of such inflammatory claims? [“Hunger, hunger, are you listening,/ To the words from Rachel's
pen?/ Words which taken at face value,/Place lives of birds 'bove those of men.”] Here are several
questions to consider to focus your engagement with Carson: i) Was Carson absolutely opposed to
pesticides? (ii)What point was Carson trying to convey to the public? (iii) What is the rhetorical effect
of the Fable for Tomorrow? (iv) Is Silent Spring a scientific, moral, or ethical work? (v) What are the
three main evaluative premises of Carson’s book? (vi)Was Carson correct in her belief that acceptance
of the right to make a dollar at any cost was a major cause of environmental despoliation? There are
also 7 questions on pp195-6 of Allchin (and some embedded in the his text). You should ignore Q 2 on
p195 but frame answers to several of his other six questions series of You should be prepared to
explain/ defend your views on all of these questions in class. You should bring brief answers in
response to six of these questions in hard copy format to the tutorial and hand them in to your
group leader. Griswald and the Wilson podcast provide useful discussions about the influence of
Silent Spring, and Griswald also provides helpful biographical context.
11 MARCH –SEEING THE INTERCONNECTEDNESS OF THINGS WITH RACHEL
CARSON
TUTORIAL A 9:00-9:50 – Reflecting on “A Fable for Tomorrow”
TUTORIAL B 10:00-10:50 -- Reflecting on “A Fable for Tomorrow”
WHOLE CLASS 11:00-11:50 – Comparing Marsh and Carson
19
Readings for week of 11-25 March
For the tutorial group discussions on 25 March, all students will read (over this two-week period)
several of the listed items from the TEXT, Adam Rome’s JAH essay and at least two of the items
by Stan Rowe (as assigned by the discussion leader). Each student will prepare a one-page (250
word) summary of one of the Rowe articles assigned them (to be handed in to the group leader at
the beginning of class) and be prepared to speak to its arguments and the issues it raises.
TEXT, 469-92(Mills), 590-94 (Crumb), 609-31(Gibbs, Schell), 725-36 (Bullard)
Adam Rome, “‘Give Earth a Chance’: The Environmental Movement and the Sixties,” Journal of
American History 90 (September 2003): 525-554.
J Stan Rowe, “Technology and Ecology,” in Home Place, Essays in Ecology (Edmonton: NeWest
Books, 1990), pp. 63-70 Available at:
http://www.ecospherics.net/pages/RoTechEcol.html
J Stan Rowe, “What on Earth is Environment? in The Trumpeter, 6, 4 (1989) pp.123-126,
available at: http://www.ecospherics.net/pages/RoWhatEarth.html
J Stan Rowe, “This is your Mother Calling,” in The Briarpatch, September, 1986 available at:
http://www.ecospherics.net/pages/RoMotCal.html
Additional Reading:
Robert Gottlieb, “Reconstructing Environmentalism: Complex Movements, Diverse Roots,”
Environmental History Review, 17, 4 (Winter 1993), 1-19 (UBCLIB e-journal)
"Gaylord Nelson and Earth Day: The Making of the Modern Environmental Movement,"
http://www.nelsonearthday.net/.
Adam Rome, “The Genius of Earth Day,” Environmental History, 15 (April 2010): 194-205.
Leo Marx, “American Institutions and Ecological Ideals Scientific and literary views of our
expansionary life-style are converging,” Science 170, no. 3961 (Nov. 27, 1970), 945-952
(UBCLIB e-journal)
Samuel P Hays, Beauty, Health, and Permanence: Environmental Politics in the United States (New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1987) (UBCLIB)
Reading Notes for weeks of 11-25 March
Because the week of March 18 brings our focus squarely on Canada through consideration of the first
two of the 2013 McLean Lectures (which raise questions about environmentalism and sustainability in
Canada), the reading here runs over a two week period, and focuses, in the first instance on “The
Sixties” -- that “crazy time” when people believed they could change the world – and a new social
movement known as environmentalism took centre stage. The first great interpreter of this movement,
Samuel P Hays, argued that “environmentalism” was radically different from “conservationism”
(which he had also studied in detail – see above), because the latter was, in his terms a “producer”
movement, the latter a “consumer” movement. More than his, Hays characterized environmentalism in
a telling (but perhaps imperfect?) catchphrase, arguing that it was focused on BEAUTY (concern for
scenic or wilderness preservation) HEALTH (concerns about pollution and its effects on human
bodies) and PERMANENCE (concerns about what we might now call the sustainability of life on earth
due to anxieties about population growth, nuclear Armageddon etc. The links, forward and back,
should be obvious here, and are important in understanding the broad, evolving trajectory of
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environmental thought. In reading the slender selection of material chosen from a wide and diverse
literature for these discussions you should ask yourself about the context from which this “moment”
emerged – the post WWII economic boom, suburban expansion, the encouragement of consumerism,
the mounting evidence that ills were befalling the earth (if this phrase carries an echo, think back to
Chief Seattle’s speech and the “Crying Indian” PSA) manifest in the burning of rivers and Love Canal,
the war in Vietnam etc. In our Tutorial Group discussions on 25 March we will focus particularly on
the ideas articulated by the remarkable (albeit little celebrated) Canadian J Stan Rowe, and ask whether
he provides a distinctively Canadian perspective on North American environmentalism.
18 MARCH –ENVIRONMENTALISM AND SUSTAINABILITY IN CANADA
All students will meet in Room 214 to view two videos (each just over an hour long) in
preparation for remainder of the course. These are the first two McLean Lectures in Canadian
Studies delivered by the course instructor in March 2013. They offer a Canadian perspective on
some of the issues we have discussed in this course and hope to stimulate thinking about some of
the current environmental challenges that confront Canadians and others. These videos do not
include illustrations, but the powerpoints will be made available and will be shown in sync with
the videos by the TA
View: Navigating a Wasting World, I and II, Available at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDt_gsWBgiI&list=PLG5UGIHVtlPQBGqjM_HDWpsg4qHjt0Gn
R&index=1
And
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8aJPfzqtwQ&list=PLG5UGIHVtlPQBGqjM_HDWpsg4qHjt0Gn
R&index=2
25 MARCH –
TUTORIAL GROUPS A and B meet together, 9:00-10:50 to consider “Canadians as Earthlings”
WHOLE CLASS 11:00-11:50
Readings for week of April 1-8:
For our final meeting, Tutorial Groups will again meet together to consider the discourse of
Sustainability with particular reference to what some regard as the economic foundations of
Canada’s future and what others see as one of the greatest environmental outrage of our times –
the development of the Alberta/Saskatchewan oil/tar sands. Essential viewing is the third
McLean Lecture of 2013 (to be done on your own time). Essential readings are the pieces by
Speth and Stoll, and Worster and one of Guha. Part of our purpose in the two hour discussion on
April 8 will be to consider the ways in which environmentalism appears as an unfortunate form
of western hubris, and ponder the larger dilemma this creates. Wider reading is encouraged.
TEXT 770-80 (Durning), 855-9 (Gore), 874-97 (Quammen)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZISD_L6_ty4&list=PLG5UGIHVtlPQBGqjM_HDWpsg4qHjt0Gn
R&index=3
James Gustave Speth, “Environmental failure: a case for a new green politics,” Guardian (UK),
Tuesday 21 October 2008 available at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/21/network
Steven Stoll, “Fear of Fallowing: The Specter of a no-growth world” Harper’s Magazine, March 2008,
Available at: http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/03/0081958
Donald Worster, “The Shaky Ground of Sustainable Development,” Chapter 12 of The wealth of
nature: environmental history and the ecological imagination (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1993), 142-55 (UBCLIB online) --all but 3 pp of the chapter also available via Google
Books
Ramachandra Guha, “Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third
World Critique,” Environmental Ethics,11(1989), pp. 71–83 (UBCLIB ejournal)
OR
Ramachandra Guha, “The Authoritarian Biologist and the Arrogance of Anti-Humanism: Wildlife
Conservation in the Third World,” The Ecologist 27 (Jan/Feb 1997), pp14-20 (UBCLIB
ejournal). Available at: http://www.uvm.edu/rsenr/wfb175/guha_wildlife.pdf
Additional Reading:
John Robinson, “Squaring the circle? Some thoughts on the idea of sustainable development,”
Ecological Economics, 48, 4 (2004), pp. 369– 384(UBCLIB: e-journal)
Chris Sneddon, Richard B. Howarth, Richard B. Norgaard, “Sustainable development in a postBrundtland world,” Ecological Economics 57, 2 (2006), 253–268 (UBCLIB e-journal)
Gro Harlem Bruntland, Our Common Future, Report of the World Commission on Environment and
Development, World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987. Published as
Annex to General Assembly document A/42/427, Development and International Co-operation:
Environment Aug 2,1987(UBCLIB)
John M. Gowdy, “Progress and Environmental Sustainability,” Environmental Ethics,
16,1 (1994), 41-55 PDF available at: http://www.umweltethik.at/download.php?id=412
Joan Martinez-Alier, "The Environment as a luxury good or "too poor to be green?”
Ecological Economics, 13 (1995), pp. 1-10. (UBCLIB ejournal)
Ramachandra Guha, How much should a person consume? environmentalism in
India and the United States (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006
Joan Martinez-Allier, The Environmentalism of the Poor (London: Edward Elgar,
2004)
Reading Notes: Here, so to speak, the rubber should hit the road. After a term of reading, learning, and
thinking about environmental ideas, attitudes, and actions we come to consider an issue of pressing
contemporary importance against this backdrop. Surely the exploitation of Canada’s northern oil/tar
sands (and the corollary debates about how best to get “the product to market,” via Keystone XL, the
Northern Gateway etc) has already registered on your consciousnesses. In your reading and discussion
this week it is important to hold on to the possibility of diluting, refining (excuse the puns) or even
changing your established positions on these matters. The fundamental question is: how do we move
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forward from here and what will be the consequences of particular choices. A moment’s reflection will
show that those who wish to accelerate and those who wish to temper oil exploitation invoke larger
discourse about sustainability and security; both of course raise questions about the kind of future we
(and others) will have. Thus it is important, in thinking about these issues to put taken-for-granted
terms and concepts under the microscope. Sustainability/ Sustainable Development is perhaps the
single term most in need of such critical examination. The Worster article opens up this line of inquiry.
The short pieces by Speth and Stoll chart the case for action and the difficulties of getting people to
adopt a new course (the subject also of Robinson’s reflection). In the end, though perhaps Gowdy sums
it up best on p52 of his article: “Environmental sustainability requires more than a change in values and
consumption patterns. If everyone consumed significantly less, the worldwide market economy would
probably collapse. Moreover, the environmental damage done in the wake of such a collapse would be
monumental. An important task is to begin to decouple the well-being of the human species from
economic growth and dependence on ever-widening markets. At some point, economic expansion will
be halted by the fact that humans, like other species, are dependent on the life-support systems of the
biosphere.”
8 APRIL THINKING ABOUT CANADA -- AND THE WORLD. THE OIL/TAR SANDS
DILEMMA AND THE CHALLENGE OF GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP
TUTORIAL GROUPS A and B meet together 9:00-10:50. Topic as above
WHOLE CLASS— Shaping a future
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TRACKING DEVICE
This summary is intended to make it easier for you to keep track of various written (and group)
assignments and to assist you in submitting/ preparing them on time. It should be used in conjunction
with the schedule and list of requirements above which provide more detail about each of the items
listed here: Items marked ** are “low-stakes” (ungraded) but must be submitted
14 January am **
Bring “Found Object” to Discussion Section
20 January 5:00pm**
400-word essay, due by 5:00pm
21 January am**
3 short questions to class
27 January 11:59pm
750-word essay (Quammen or Lopez) (GRADED)
3 February 5:00 pm**
250 words on Marsh text
11 February am**
Short answers to three of ten questions
24 February 11:59 pm:
750-word essay ([modeled on Burroughs]) (GRADED)
4 March am**
Presentation of Freyfogle or Callicott to class
11 March am**
six short answers to Carson questions to tutorial
25 March am**
250-word summary of Rome, Gottlieb or Rome
24March 11:59pm
750-word essay (Lovins) (GRADED)
10 April, 11:59pm
Term Paper (GRADED)
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