Past Seminars
Spring 2008 Seminiars
Katrina
B. Lee Lindner, Department of Physics and Astronomy
The first half of the course will cover the physics of hurricanes, and Hurricane Katrina in particular. The second half of the course will feature guest lecturers presenting perspectives of Hurricane Katrina from a variety of viewpoints. Katrina survivors Dean Cynthia Lowenthal, Prof. Sorin Oprisan, and Prof. Ana Oprisan will guest lecture, as will Prof. Brigit Doyle (Levee failure), Frank Alsheimer (NWS), Diana Klein (Chief Program Officer of the American Red Cross for Gulf Coast recovery) and Dave Williams (ABC News). Students will also research Katrina and give short oral presentations and write papers.
Spring 2007 Seminiars
Ecological Economics
Professor Calvin Blackwell, Department of Economics and Finance
Ecological Economics is a new and growing field, described as "the transdisciplinary study of the human economy as part of nature's economy." It incorporates economics, philosophy and the natural sciences to examine some of humanity's most pressing environmental issues. In this seminar we will use some of the tools of these fields to examine issues like sustainable development, natural resource management, and valuing the environment and biodiversity.
Spring 2006 Seminiars
Blue Holes: Policy and the Environment
Professor Stephanie Schwabe, Department of Geology, adjunct
This course will provide students with an integrated view of the problems, both envrionmental and social, that face the subsurface and fresh water environments of the Bahamas today. This will be accomplished first through detailed examination of the geography and geology of the Bahamas, including how they form and what they describe about the subterranean environment. In addition commonwealth and international law as it applies to human rights will be studied.
Spring 2005 Seminiars
Transportation & Eco-Justice
Professor Deborah McCarthy, Sociology Department
This course will provide a survey of the literature on the interactions between society and the environment with a particular focus on transportation. Students will build on this literature to conduct their own sociological assessment of the pressing and unique transportation issues, policies, and planning in the Charleston metropolitan area.
Spring 2004 Seminiars
Water Resources: Waste Not, Want Not
Professor Timothy Callahan, Department of Geology
The non-fiction book "Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water" by Marc Reisner is an account of the development of the western U.S. The expansion of cities such as Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Las Vegas transpired in large part due to the water projects by the US Bureau of Reclamation on rivers such as the Colorado, Snake, Green, and Columbia, among others. Reisner's book was originally published in 1986, and in this seminar we will reflect on his predictions of water use, population change, etc. We will also read a more recent publication by Robert Glennon entitled, "Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America's Fresh Waters" which describes the effects intensive groundwater pumping projects can have on fragile ecosystems in streams, lakes, and wetlands. The average US citizen consumes more water than ten citizens of any other country; students will be asked to document and comment on water usage in their own daily routine to understand their impact on this precious global resource.
Spring 2003 Seminiars
The Skeptical Environmentalist
Professor Calvin Blackwell, Economics Department
Most people think the quality of the environment is poor and getting worse. In a recent book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, author Bjorn Lomborg questions this belief. He boldly attempts to show that in fact the environment has been improving, not declining. In this seminar we will examine his controversial ideas and try to take some measure of the overall health of the environment. "This is one of the most valuable books on public policy - not merely on environmental policy - to have been written for the intelligent reader in the past ten years… The Skeptical Environmentalist is a triumph.." The Economist "The problem with Lomborg's conclusion is that the scientists themselves disavow it. Many spoke to us at Scientific American about their frustration at what they described as Lomborg's misrepresentation of their fields" from "Misleading Math about the Earth," Scientific American
Spring 2002 Seminiars
Energy and the Environment
Professor Frank Kinard, Department of Chemistry
Spring 2001 Seminiars
Environmental Audit of the College of Charleston
Professor Tracy Burkett, Department of Sociology