| Environmental
Analysis: Energy Flow in Natural Systems (Fall 2007)
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This course fulfills Category III of the General Education Requirement. Faculty:
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Course Description: An introduction to the science and policy of environmental analysis
and management. We will pursue the flow of energy through Earth-surface
natural systems as the best strategy now available to understand
the operation of those systems, and we will use energy analysis
to compare environmental solutions. We will examine the history
of development of the biosphere, and the extent to which environmental
solutions will benefit from mimicking the configuration of systems
that have adjusted to environmental changes via 3 billion years
of trial-and-error (biological evolution). We will develop the
long-term temporal perspective on environmental problems that emerges
from an understanding of the sweep of Earth's history. We hope
that our students will leave the course with a better appreciation
of the complexity of environmental problems, and a realization
that such complex problems are not often successfully addressed
with simplistic solutions. (Back to Course Descriptions Menu) |