Environmental Studies

This course explores the ambiguous connections between population dynamics and climate change. After a lecture-based acquisition of basic knowledge in the field of demography, the course studies the link between climate change and population dynamics in an interactive way by discussing scientific articles. It discusses which demographic dynamics linked to fertility, mortality, and migration impact environmental changes. Hereby, the course considers questions such as how far climate change can be explained by population growth; whether demographic pressure helps adapting more quickly to climate change; and which regions are the most responsible for climate change, in economic and demographic terms. A particular focus is determining which populations are most vulnerable to climate change and environmental degradation. Based on this fundamental knowledge, it discusses possible actions to dramatically reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and further deterioration of the environment as well as to protect the most exposed and vulnerable populations. It tackles climate-change related education, access to reproductive health care and family planning, gender equality in education and economic participation, investments in public health care services and technical improvements. This allow students to answer questions about what policies should be recommended to alleviate climate change, in the light of population growth and population aging, and which best-practice examples exist that help mitigating the effects of climate change for the most vulnerable.

In this course, students critically explore the scientific base of the degrowth paradigm. Is “green” growth indeed impossible, and how would we know? How is growth tied to global production-consumption systems and their destructive impacts? How does the economic growth paradigm influence not only countries and organizations but also individuals who strive for performance maximization and more productive and marketable uses of their time? Through the lens of three different academic perspectives, students explore and discuss what “de-growing” economic systems, policies, and individual behaviors could look like.

The first portion of this course focuses on comprehending ideas presented by Thom Hartmann, the key author that has helped influence the discussion of key environmental and social issues of the latter 20th century and early 21st century (influencing such people as celebrity Leonardo DiCaprio and politician Bernie Sanders). 

In this process, we examine the harmful aspects of city-state culture, such as competition, domination, and excess, as well as positive tribal values such as being part of nature, cooperation, care, and sharing. Students explore knowledge and skills needed to enhance their understanding of the interconnectedness of all living things, promote environmental awareness, and create a more sustainable future. 

The second half of the semester involves practical “hands-on” discovery as students choose their own issue to research, to discover what the author may have missed and even how the world has or hasn’t changed since the author wrote his book. 

This course examines some of the key theoretical and practical problems and opportunities which arise when the ethical-political position of care is applied to issues around environment and sustainability. The first half of the course focuses on theoretical topics, such as: 1) Gillard's "different voice" contribution to moral psychology and feminism; 2) the challenge which relationality and interdependence presents to ethics and politics; and 3) how ethics of care offers an additional perspective on justice linking people-animals, and present-future generations. The second half of the course explores a number of empirical cases in areas like renewable energy (nuclear power, wind farms, community renewables etc.); landscape management (eco-system services, rewilding, species reintroduction etc.); and sustainable food production (allotments, regenerative agriculture, GM crops etc.). It also explores home and community, and cultures and communities around the world which link people and planet in different ways.

The course provides students with a clear understanding of how basic economic principles, technical constraints, and sustainability goals shape the design, operation, and outcomes of markets for energy commodities, namely, electricity and natural gas. The course first illustrates how the price of energy is set at the wholesale and retail level and how this price accounts for technical constraints and environmental policies (taxes/cap-and-trade).  Then, the course explores how market agents interact in these markets and, most importantly, the potential consequences of such behavior on society at large (e.g., on the level of prices paid by final users and on investments in renewable technologies, etc.). While students acquire skills for making optimal techno-economic decisions in other courses, this course takes them a step further and they learn that the outcome of their individually optimal choices strongly depends on the decisions made by others (competition and cooperation are both possible). In line with the inherently multidisciplinary approach required for the energy transition, the course offers students from different tracks the opportunity to productively work together and learn from one another. Useful prior knowledge derives from the following courses: Mathematics and Systems Analysis (GEO1-2411), Science of Energy Technologies (GEO1-2203), Policy Evaluation and Design (GEO2-2113), and Principles of Economics (GEO1-2255 or GEO1-2435).

This course traces the evolution of political ecological thought by linking major philosophical and political theories with the social movements and concrete practices that have emerged from them. It considers how ideas transform reality, how critiques of productivism have given rise to new forms of collective action, and how political ecology has attempted to construct a response to current economic, social, and environmental impasses. Drawing on theoretical texts, case studies, contemporary controversies, and experiences of engagement, the course emphasizes the connection between academic knowledge and practical experience in the field.

Drinking water production plants and wastewater treatment plants are essential parts of the urban water infrastructure and have a large influence on the hydrological cycle. To protect the environment and the environmental services the ecosystems provide, water needs to be handled in an environmentally sustainable way. In the glocal perspective SDG 6 "Water and sanitation" targets the need to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and saniation for all. The aim of the course is to provide knowledge about water and wastewater treatment to be able to design and operate municipal facilities for production of drinking water and treatment of wastewater in the urban area.

This course explores how poetry can address sustainability issues relevant to participants' professional, personal, and academic lives. Participants are encouraged to use poetry to deepen their connection with sustainability-related themes that are meaningful to them. It aims to use poetry's emotional impact to transform readers into active agents of change. The course extends poetry's potential beyond the literature classroom, encouraging participants to decenter human perspectives through the analysis of poems. The course provides a basic introduction to the tools required for analyzing poetry and facilitates the application of these to poems on various sustainability topics. Concepts from poetry analysis that are covered include the use of figurative language, diction, tone, as well as form and structure. Additionally, the course explores poetry and affective responses by exploring how poetry engages emotions. The course delves into both individual and collaborative responses to poetry and how such responses reshape perceptions of sustainability issues through an affective/reader-response lens. A creative-writing component is also integrated into the course. Participants use the writing of poetry to explore sustainability themes.

Climate change is a global policy challenge whose solutions need to transcend national borders to address its multilayered causes and courses of action. This course reflects on transnational climate governance through the case of the EU Green Deal by exploring case by case its relevant stakeholders: in-house policymakers, member states, civil society, private and international actors. These stakeholders are viewed in parallel to climate policy domains (social and intergenerational justice, carbon markets, sustainable finance), and its tools (lobbying, negotiations and legislative procedures). This course provides a comprehensive approach to studying climate governance, combining theoretical concepts with practical examples, engaging students with real-life policy developments.

This course covers the choice and application of univariate and multivariate statistical techniques and tests, for the interpretation of ecological field data. The choice of appropriate test is given attention in relation to the type of data under investigation. The necessary theoretical statistical background is expected to be present. The use of software (R, Excel, Ecological packages) for the analysis of field data is highlighted and exercised. Attention is paid to the sequence: hypothesis, choice of tests, interpretation of statistical results, and ecological meaning of outcome with respect to the hypothesis. Emphasis is placed on the use of data from plant-animal interactions and studies on individual plant or animal species.