Environmental Studies

In this class the different techniques toward urban gardening are analyzed through excursions to different gardens throughout Berlin, as well as texts from experienced gardeners from various backgrounds. This class is transdisciplinary so it encompasses viewpoints from a wide range of people with a wide range of disciplines. The course offers an opportunity to situate questions of planetary change through the study of Berlin as a complex ecosystem, gaining in-depth perspectives through its urban gardens and their human and non-human communities. The course explores the range of disciplines that inform the field of ecology ranging from environmental, to mental and social, as well as spiritual. From plants to political dynamics, activism to artistry, the urban gardens studied reflect the diverse topography of Berlin's ecology. The course offers skills, insights, and questions to develop ecological thinking, embracing the wide range of cultural and academic backgrounds that students contribute.

The course explains the scientific and cultural significance of the Anthropocene, engages with key debates over the Anthropocene, identifies the major ethical and political questions facing humanity in time of ecological uncertainty and environmental degradation, and connects the Anthropocene with current events and everyday life.

The course introduces students to important substantive areas and concepts in the governance and planning of cities and urban regions. It explores current issues and debates in selected sectoral planning systems, their institutions and planning instruments, their interests and ways of thinking. This includes environmental and nature conservation policies, infrastructure policies (e.g. water, wastewater, energy, waste, transportation, telecommunication), the provision of social services, or economic policies and marketing strategies. Students reflect on how a diversity of sectoral policies and planning systems shape urban development and how they relate to and interact with spatial planning.

This course addresses fundamental issues related to the idea of sustainable development. Sustainable development is based upon three criteria: environmental protections, social progress and economic development. This course discusses various reasons why the present path of development is unsustainable, and the solutions to make the world a more sustainable place. It presents case studies pertaining to Hong Kong and examples from other parts of the world to illustrate the interconnections among processes in different regions and across geographical scales. Topics include: transgenic agriculture; sustainability and urban living space; pollution versus development; limits to growth; impacts of rich and poor on the environment; and resource management.

The global South is urbanizing at roughly twice the rate of the global North, yet dominant narratives of 'the city' continue to privilege London, Los Angeles, and Paris over Lagos, Johannesburg, and Mumbai. This course explores how cities of the global South are generating new bodies of theory, new forms of social life, and new imaginaries. It does this through novels, films, and other textual and visual representations of everyday urbanism, drawing on contemporary theory from the global South to help make sense of these discourses. Assessment: assignments (50%), final exam (50%).

This course studies the fields of wildlife management and conservation biology using a problem-based learning approach. Students use quantitative exercises and literature review assignments to explore problems spanning a wide range of conservation issues including genetic analysis, population biology, the public policy process, and ecosystem and landscape management. Students then discuss how the results of the exercises and assignments can be viewed from a broader ecological and socio-economic perspective. Students work in groups on case studies which comprise a detailed analysis of complex problems related to wildlife management. Topics are related to human and wildlife interactions and frequently address how wildlife can be best conserved. Students are able to outline and interpret the theoretical framework underlying wildlife management issues, analyze complex wildlife management problems using scientific literature and societal context, and present the results in a clear manner for both managers and policy makers.

We are living in an era of increasing population, urbanization, transportation, technology and consumption while experiencing increasingly fewer fundamental resources for humans like food, water, ores, and traditional forms of energy. On top of that, driven by human activities, the Earth undergoes a period of unprecedented environmental change, which by now accounts for all fundamental Earth systems and resource provision. This change, spanning from local to global scales, is one of the most pressing challenges for humanity, and the planet's ecosphere as a whole. This course covers the following topics: states and trends of key environmental components such as biological diversity, soils, freshwater and oceans, climate; main trends of human drivers of environmental and climate change such as population, consumption, land and sea use, and energy use; human activities like deforestation, agriculture, pollution, resource exploitation and construction; the transformation environmental Earth systems to a scale and magnitude unprecedented in Earth history; the importance of maintaining biodiversity; future climate change impacts on environmental and human systems; concepts of sustainability related to renewability and management issues of water, soil, and energy resources; impact of human decisions on our own lives and our planet's future; personal decisions and their collective impact. This course introduces students to environmental issues which emerge from the coupling of natural environmental processes and human systems. By using examples from around the planet, course contents highlight key problems and their underlying causes, human actions that made them an issue, and the struggle for solutions. The goals of the course are to provide students with a knowledge of the interdependence of natural biotic and abiotic Earth systems, resource provision and human systems, and to introduce key observations of human-related changes of Earth systems and their implications for a sustainable use of environmental resources.