ENV - Environmental Studies

This course develops a holistic view of planet Earth by considering global interactions between atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and geosphere. A regional perspective is developed by examining how plate tectonics, earthquakes, and volcanoes have shaped the active continental margin in the Pacific Northwest. Fee: $80

Geological catastrophes (e.g. earthquakes, meteorite impacts, and flooding) are important processes in shaping the Earth. This course will acquaint students with the scientific principles governing these catastrophes. Fee: $80

This course explores foods, including the science behind the ways we grow, process, distribute, and cook them. We consider the impacts food choices have on our environment and health. We ask what dietary choices are the most sustainable and how to make informed decisions about buying food. Finally, we discuss the aesthetic and cultural attributes of really delicious food.

This course introduces current issues, scientific background, and future prospects related to food production and consumption. Students will explore the consequences and limitations of modern agriculture and understand the impacts food choices have on our environment and health. In collaboration with ENG 161, Thinking Through Food in Literature, students will engage in a research project to consider sustainable dietary choices.

This course explores the physical and ecological aspects of our oceans and myriad aspects of the human relationship with marine habitats on a local and global ocean. Three hours of lecture per week. Fee: $80

Core sustainability principles through the lens of political ecological perspectives. Topics include ecological stewardship, global systems, natural resources, technology, transportation; and community and personal resilience.

Survey of the scientific issues involved in the problems of maintenance of environmental quality and preservation of our ecosystem. The search for a sustainable society will be discussed.

This entry course surveys the different specialties that make up the field of environmental studies, including environmental biology, atmospheric science and climatology, geomorphology, geology, GIS & remote sensing, conservation biology, water quality regulation, the relationship between science environmental ethics, and/or other current topics. Students will be presented with a broad introduction to all of these disciplines. Fee: $80

For special lower-division laboratory projects. Content and credit to be arranged. Fee: $60 per credit hour.

This course will provide a field and/or laboratory experience that gives students an introduction to techniques used in environmental research.  In different sections research approaches used in atmospheric science, climatology, geomorphology, geology, coastal ecology, conservation biology, or other areas of active research in the environmental studies department will be focused on. May be repeated for up to 6 credits.

This course explores the biological, chemical, and physical structure of wetlands around the world. Species interactions, human impacts to wetlands, wetland disease agents, & the role wetlands play in global change will be considered. We will also explore the role wetlands have played in human history and how this has shaped our knowledge of wetland ecosystems.

This course is designed to provide an understanding of the basics of the environmental regulations and how local, state and the federal governments responding to regulatory issues through innovation and performance-based approaches. Performance based approaches include, among others: accurate measures, best management practices; purchasing and certification and implementing environmental management systems and programs.

This course introduces students to environmental studies at an upper division level through an examination of various topics and/or issues related to the environment. Possible topics may include the nature of science and the scientific method, skepticism about science, endangered species, compassionate conservation, water, and/or climate change. Fee: $80

This course explores the biological, chemical, and physical structure of freshwater ecosystems. Species interactions, human impacts, climate change, & the value of freshwater ecosystems will be examined through a project-based approach.

In this competency-based lab course in freshwater ecology students will demonstrate proficiency in a variety of fieldwork and laboratory skills that are essential to freshwater ecologists. Fee: $70

Resilience Science is the dominant theory of social-ecological systems, shaping policy, planning and practice. Students investigate a series of local, national and international case studies and related regulatory policy, environmental planning and sustainable development practices, while comparing traditional command-and-control approaches with the Resilience Science model.

The Two Americas in terms of environmental health are not just the coasts and the inner states, or just white people and people of color, or just liberal and conservative. Those with dramatically different environmental health impacts are rich and poor people. This course will look at lead in drinking water, mountaintop mining, fracking for natural gas, subsistence fish consumption, air pollution and children, septic systems and diseases.

An inquiry into our obligations to the non-human world and the philosophical basis of those obligations.

Covers current analytical frameworks and tools that leading-edge organizations are using to benchmark and improve environmental, social and financial performance. Includes environmental and social valuation techniques, life cycle analysis, and carbon footprinting.

This course will delve into the growing philosophical and scientific literature on the nature of consciousness, exploring which non-human animals could be said to be conscious and why, whether insects are conscious, and whether it makes sense to talk about plant consciousness. The course engages the interdisciplinary field of consciousness studies and looks at the ethical implications of finding consciousness in the non-human world.

Drawing from a range of literature, this course takes an interdisciplinary approach to environmental justice theory and practice. Students will interrogate the historical legacies of the disproportionate burdens of ecological issues on minority groups in the U.S. and worldwide. We will evaluate the roles that environmental justice movements have played in the struggle to meet the needs of vulnerable populations around the world.

This course explores the physical and biological controls on sediment transport and the shape of the Earth’s landforms on human to geologic timescales. Topics include: rivers, glaciers, hillslopes, soils, landslides, coastal processes, and Aeolian processes. Will also consider applications to land management and river restoration.

Field and laboratory investigation of geomorphology. Three hours of laboratory per week. Fee: $80

This course addresses questions such as:  What is the relationship between the biophysical environment and international security?  Does competition over resources cause conflict? Does environmental scarcity cause conflict? How will global warming affect relations among great powers the political stability of the developing world?

This course will consider how environmental problems arise, looking at how a progression of natural and human circumstances becomes an "environmental problem." It will survey the law, politics, and institutions that manage pollution. The course will also look closely at a handful of environmental policy issues, particularly in the Columbia River, and the interplay of science, risk, and uncertainty.

This course explores how organisms and ecosystems respond to the changing environment. Includes discussion of different lines of evidence for understanding biological responses to global change, including observations, paleoecology, experiments, and modeling. Three hours of lecture per week.

Field and laboratory investigation of how organisms and ecosystems respond to the changing environment. Three hours of lab per week. Fee: $70

This course examines data from modern buoy networks, sonar, satellites, and computational models to explore seawater chemistry, seafloor and coastal geology, currents, waves, tides and more; especially focusing on maritime transportation, ocean acidification, pollution, overfishing, tsunamis, beach erosion, storm surge, sea-level rise, rogue waves, rip currents, sustainable coastal development, surfing and swell forecasting. Fee: $30

This course will cover the role of snow and ice in the connected Earth system, including: the formation and flow of glaciers and ice sheets, response of the cryosphere to climate change, importance of glaciers in Oregon’s hydrologic cycle, ice cores and glacial landforms as archives of climate history, connections and feedbacks between the ocean and marine glaciers, projections of sea level rise, and frontiers of glaciological research. Fee: $90

This course will allow students to explore the environmental impacts and scientific challenges of raising the food for our growing population. Students will engage in using an ethical lens to evaluate the impact of our agricultural system on the world around us and ourselves. Fee: $10

This course focuses on physical processes controlling day-to-day weather, along with the current tools and techniques that professional meteorologists use to monitor, model, and forecast the weather. Course goals include helping students to make better weather-related planning decisions, and reducing vulnerability to hazardous weather phenomena such as blizzards, lightning, large hail, downbursts, tornadoes, damaging straight-line winds, and other extremes.

Study of British and American authors from the eighteenth century to today who have creatively considered and analyzed humans' relationship to and representations of the environment. Selected authors may include William and Dorothy Wordsworth, Henry David Thoreau, Rachel Carson, and Michael Pollan.

This course explores the physical, chemical, and biological phenomena that affect and are affected by Earth's climate system and climate changes. The course also includes applications of climate science to energy-efficient architecture, water management, ecology, forestry, precision agriculture, solar power, wind power, analysis of paleoclimates, and modeling of future climate change, along with anthropogenic climate-change impacts and mitigation strategies.

This course will provide students with various skills to understand and learn how decisions on climate change are made at the international level. Student will engage in essential aspects of climate change negotiations through historical and contemporary analysis of critical outcomes at the United Nations Framework Convention (UNFCCC) from the Kyoto Protocol to the Paris Agreement.

This course centers on understanding global climate change from science, policy, and social justice perspectives. Rather than approaching these as individual components of climate change, the course focuses on the relationships and dynamics between all three within a global social-ecological system. Emphasis is on current context, bridging the gap between the Global North and South, and the toolsets needed to create solutions.

Field and laboratory investigation of wetland ecosystems. Students will explore problems facing wetlands, methods for assessing wetland health, and how to apply ecological principles to solve wetland related issues. Three hours of lab per week. Fee: $70
 

This course will explore the tools and methods used to study the connected global climate system in both the field and lab settings. Students will develop quantitative skills while collecting, processing, and visualizing climatological data. Fee: $120

The course investigates the sources, distribution and impacts of atmospheric pollutants. Specifically, the role of air pollution in climate change, human health, and environmental impacts will be covered in detail. The course will also discuss the natural background chemistry of the atmosphere, photochemistry, and urban air pollution.

This course investigates the interrelationships between the inanimate Earth and life forms, with special emphasis on environmental interactions between the Earth and humans. Topics include the environmental significance of natural resources (including energy, minerals, soil, and water), natural hazards (including earthquakes, mass wasting, subsidence, and volcanoes), ocean processes (including basins and coastlines), and waste management (including burial, movement, remediation). Fee: $30

This course investigates environmental applications of multispectral remote sensing (RS) and geographic information systems (GIS). RS topics include sensor systems, digital image processing, and automated information extraction. GIS topics include spatial database management systems, data analysis, and environmental modeling. Emphasis is placed on biological applications including vegetation mapping, habitat identification and field data mapping.

Morphology, physiology, and ecology of microorganisms, emphasizing their role in environmental processes such as nutrient cycling, bioremediation, waste treatment, and food production.

This course takes the perspective of environmental chemistry to address topics including: energy forms, the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the biosphere, transport of materials, chemical transformations, and modeling.

This lab involves outdoor measurements of environmental variables around campus using professional-grade equipment, plus indoor analysis of the data that students collect. Fee: $60

In this course, students will develop quantitative skills that can be applied to studying glaciers as well as broadly applied to the field of environmental studies. Through data collection and analysis, students will examine glaciers as geomorphologic agents and as participants in climate change. Students will develop skillsets in remote sensing, geophysics, cartographic surveying, numerical modeling, and physical modeling. Fee: $125

A project-oriented seminar in which student teams with varying backgrounds in environmental studies develop action plans to deal with regional environmental issues.

Leaders in sustainability must be able to understand rapid changes in environmental and social conditions, innovate to adapt to those changes, collaborate to envision transitions to sustainable futures, and engage with others to realize those visions. To build these capacities, this course develops systems thinking skills using readings and case studies drawn from environmental, social, and business contexts.

This course investigates the relationship between theology and science, the science of ecology and the related field of environmental science, the major aspects of our current environmental crisis, underlying historical and social reasons for this crisis, and current attempts to reformulate Christian theology from the perspective of ecology. The course also explores possible solutions for a sustainable future.

Faculty-directed student research. Before enrolling, a student must consult with an environmental studies faculty member to define the project. Course is graded A-F.

Practical field experience working with governmental agencies, corporations, or environmental organizations. Students will be required to do appropriate readings and an appropriate report. Students may receive an IP (In Progress) grade until the completion of their internship.

Ecosystems, communities and enterprises are examples of complex systems. Sustainability, as it applies to each of these examples requires a systems thinking approach for its implementation and management. This course develops systems thinking perspectives and skills through a series of case studies drawn from environmental, social, and business contexts, using a participatory approach.