Environmental Studies

This course examines how to make the world more sustainable by building skills in critical thinking, enhancing self-care (building personal resilience, coping skills and a sense of community) and appreciating diversity and empowerment. It covers how to embrace a range of perspectives and approaches to sustainability topics, including holistic Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives that connect Caring for Country and collective human wellbeing. It also looks at the importance of a trans-disciplinary understanding in tackling barriers to change (for example, how to navigate the technological transition to a more sustainable future while also considering the social, economic and policy implications). Finally, it explores the potential of transformation. 

In special cases and with the approval of the instructor concerned, a student may carry out directed studies of specific problems in forestry. 

The course is designed to equip students with experience, knowledge, and skills for succeeding in globally interdependent and culturally diverse workplaces. Throughout the course, students will be challenged to question, reflect upon, and respond thoughtfully to the issues they observe and encounter in the internship setting and local host environment. Students will have the opportunity to cultivate professional and personal development skills as defined by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). Assignments focus on building a portfolio that highlights those competencies and their application to workplace skills. Students complete 45 hours of in-person and asynchronous online learning activities and 225-300 hours at the internship placement.

This course introduces the basics of dynamical oceanography, the study of forces that control ocean processes, and the resulting interaction with large scale bio-geochemical cycling. Students learn how to assess what forces and interactions are important for a particular scenario relating to an ocean feature/process. 

This course focuses on analyzing the responses of Japan and the global community to multiple environmental issues, predominantly climate change, biodiversity loss, and desertification. The special focus is on Japan's ambition to actively engage in climate change negotiations and the path to reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. The latter is a crucial step to maximize the chances that the average temperature warming will not exceed 1.5ºC above the preindustrial average. The course also explores what Japan has been doing to tackle climate change and other environmental issues.

After an introduction to the major threats to global biodiversity, student explore a series of broad conservation themes. The first part of the course focuses on the species level, including: some of the particular threats faced, why species become rare and endangered, what measures can be taken to halt or reverse population declines, and how populations of threatened species can be restored. Students consider the contribution of modern molecular genetics to clarifying and addressing various conservation issues. Students also look at how people and wildlife interact, both positively and negatively, and how emergent conflicts can be resolved. The second part of the course adopts a habitat and ecosystem focus. Students work up from a consideration of specific habitats and their management to a landscape approach, including methods for restoring damaged habitats and ecosystems. Finally, students explore the national, European, and international system of conservation designations and their associated legal frameworks.

This course presents the main geological characteristics of marine environments (excluding the water column). It examines the dynamics of the various structural entities that make up oceanic domains—mid‑ocean ridges, subduction zones, abyssal plains, continental margins, oceanic plateaus, and islands—and the sedimentary processes that occur within them. These elements are situated within the broader framework of lithospheric plate dynamics. The course combines classroom lectures, guided practical sessions involving the analysis of oceanographic data, and fieldwork. In addition, a guest lecture addresses current global issues affecting marine domains at the international scale.

This course covers issues involved in global environmental changes and introduces system thinking, which is used in natural and social sciences. The course covers the following topics: 

1: Global Change: Overview
2: System Diagram
3: Daisyworld
4: Global Energy Balance
5: The Atmospheric Circulation System
6: The Circulation of the Oceans
7: The Carbon Cycle
8: Long-Term Climate Regulation
9: Faint Young Sun Paradox, Early Earth
10: Short-Term Climate Variability
11: Global Warming and An Inconvenient Truth
12: Kepler and Milankovitch
13: Ozone Depletion

This course focuses on disaster risk as the key element of environmental risk, elaborating with case studies on different innovation examples in the field of housing, health, water, education and disaster recovery. It features examples from developing countries in Asia. 

Building on concepts such as ecosystem structure, biogeochemical cycles, and the principles of ecological succession, this course further clarifies, through concrete examples, the interactions between the functioning of natural environments and their development and use by humans. Using case studies, primarily focused on hydrosystems, the course addresses the functioning of water‑related environments and the management challenges they present. Special attention is given to how ecological processes (matter cycling, species interactions, and habitat evolution) shape these environments over time. Lacustrine systems, rivers, and wetlands—ecosystems particularly sensitive to climate disturbances—are emphasized. These case studies may be complemented by field-based investigations