Courses: Sustainability Studies
SUS 301 - Environmental Ethics
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SBC 104 or PHI 104
Historically, ethical and moral notions have been concerned with the relations of humans to one another. How does the natural world fit into those traditional views about ethical and moral obligations? Do these views need revision? A selection from issues such as the following will be discussed: animal rights; the intrinsic value of nature; our obligations to nature; the "land ethic"; global environmental justice; "deep ecology", and ecofeminism. Readings will include both historical sources, and recent and contemporary authors.
SUS 302 - Integrated Assessment Modeling
Credits: 3, 2 lecture + 1 recitation
Prerequisites: SBC 201, U3/U4
Use, evaluation, and development of integrated assessment models. These model typically integrate environmental concerns with variables from other disciplines for the purpose of providing policy advice to decision-makers. Students will learn about the most frequently used integrated assessment models and what we can learn from them. The models studies will include the World3 model, which was the basis of the famous book "The Limits to Growth."
SUS 303 - Demographic Change and Sustainability
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SBC 115
This course will assess the unprecedented demographic changes and diversity of the 21st century, through an interdisciplinary approach. It will explore themes such as population ageing and decline, migration in population replacement, demographic change and sustainable public health, social welfare programs, environmental degradation, and differential vulnerabilities (e.g., gender, poverty, age, education, ethnicity and race, empowerment and rights).
SUS 305 - Collective Action and Advocacy
Credits: 3, 2 seminar hours and 1 lecture
Prerequisites: SBC 111, POL 102
This course will address the ways in which people act collectively to address social problems or to change social policy. The course will be divided into two sections: a general introduction to the study of collective action, and a set of case studies in environmental activism.
SUS 306 - Business and Sustainability
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SBC 206 and three (3) 1-credit career skill courses
This course examines the interface between business and sustainability. It considers opportunities for the development and growth of profit and not-for-profit businesses associated with the promotion of sustainability. It also covers how environmental concerns and related governmental regulations influence business operations and profitability. Students will apply career skills and concepts from environmental economics to understand how business functions (e.g., operations, public relations, sales, health and safety, and corporate social responsibility) are influenced by environmental concerns. The course will highlight current issues and cases, provide an overview of theory and practice, and generate research to test students’ hypotheses, and generally explore opportunities and threats to business viability. Review of current affairs, case analyses, role plays, field trips, and guest speakers will be included along with required reading in seminal theory and research.
SUS 307 - Environmental Economics and Management
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SBC 206, MAT 131, MAT 125/126
This course presents advanced concepts in environmental economics and management through a series a detailed case studies. The cases include those concerning the US sulfur-dioxide permit trading system, the Kyoto Protocol, zoning, coastal fisheries, the use of ethanol in gasoline, tradable development rights in the Long Island Pine Barrens and the conservation of endangered species.
SUS 308 - Economic Development
Credits: 3, 2-hour lecture plus 1-hour seminar
Prerequisites: SBC 206, MAT 131 or MAT 125/126
This course teaches students about economic development and its relationship to the environment. Students learn about both the theory of economic growth and the way development has been proceeding in various regions of the world. Examples will come from the Asian tiger economies of East Asia and the development disasters in Sub-Saharan Africa. The relationships between the levels and rates of growth of output and various environmental indices will be explored.
SUS 341 - Environmental Treaties and Protocols
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SBC 111, U3/U4
A multi-disciplinary study of the scientific basis, objective, development, implementation, and intended and unintended consequences of a single major Environmental Treatise or Protocol, such as the Kyoto Protocol. Official documents, secondary literature, as well as commentary on the Treatise or Protocol are studied.
SUS 342 - Energy and Mineral Resources
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SBC 111, SBC 113
The origin, distribution, and importance of energy and mineral resources to modern civilization. The emphasis in this course is on fossil fuels and non-renewable mineral resources extracted from Earth. Geological processes responsible for the formation and distribution of energy and mineral resources, as well as current and future supply and demand are discussed. The environmental implications of the extraction and use of energy and mineral resources as well as techniques to minimize the impact on the environment will be discussed.
SUS 350 - Contemporary Topics in Sustainability
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SBC 111, U3/U4
This course deals with the meaning and the application of the idea of sustainability. Concepts underlying sustainability (equilibrium, exponential growth, and stability in complex systems) will be briefly reviewed. Then, various subjects of sustainability--populations, species, habitats, ecosystems, resources, cultures, modes of production, economic systems, and political systems will be considered. Various purposes of sustainability—for its own sake, for human welfare, for the welfare of nature will also be discussed. Finally, these ideas will be applied to a select group of contemporary issues of concern, from protection of endangered species through the prospects for sustainability of human civilization. (The particular issues discussed may vary from semester to semester.)