ENV 1001 Sustainable U

This course investigates connections between human activity and our environment as related to personal well-being. Environmental concepts presented derive from our campus region and promote meaningful connections to our student’s present and future world view. We discuss
various components of the Earth system, including water, air, soil/rocks and energy, and how humans interact with and impact these essential and vulnerable resources. We explore how effective decision-making on the personal, regional, federal, and global level are critical to human and ecosystem well-being on multiple spatial scales. The course will be taught in two units that include: A. Planet Earth and You: Your Connections and Impact on Planet Earth as seen through your backyard and community; and B. Climate and Us: Understanding Climate science, impacts & inequities. Together, these units cover environmental processes and human impacts on multiple spatial and temporal scales, demonstrate time frames needed for earth evolution of our natural resources and their rapid consumption based on human population, and how human well-being is intertwined with a sustainable planet. Ultimately, environmental awareness of our resources promotes stewardship, conservation and the ability for the next generation of informed citizens to address complex problems associated with their distribution and consumption. Several field trips to selected locations on our campus and the Paterson Museum further illustrate presented concepts. This course fulfills UCC area 1.

Credits: 3.0