Environmental Studies

This course offers an in-depth analysis of the multidimensional social challenges that are embedded in the global food systems, utilizing the Sicilian foodways as a case study. Immigration from Africa and the Middle East, recent food quality discourses and fair-trade practices intersect in Sicily, at the center of the Mediterranean, offering a rich landscape of NGOs and businesses that lead the social change towards a more equitable and just system of food production, distribution, and consumption. The course discusses the experiences of the migrant agricultural labor force, seeking to create a better life for themselves far from their homelands; and the course explores the agricultural system into which they find themselves inserted. Combined with an in-depth introduction to the new regimes of food quality that have influenced the emergence of prestigious and innovative food brands and labels in Sicily, students use their new understanding of the trends of the recent past to map the possible developments that Sicilian cuisine may take in the future.

This course examines resources & management systems; sustainable development - history, concepts & applications; framework & process of planning with a focus on local & regional levels; integrated landscape conservation; protected area planning and management; land tenure & property rights; and communicating conservation.

This course familiarizes students with renewable energy resources and technologies for their utilization. The topic covered include, renewable energy resources, their advantages and limitations; the solar energy potential of Botswana; the utilization of solar energy for power generation: photovoltaic and solar thermal electric plants; solar cells, modules, arrays, and storage batteries; stand-alone and grid-connected photovoltaic plants; solar collectors; solar plants for thermal applications such as water heating, space heating and cooling, and refrigeration; technologies for the utilization of wind, biomass and geothermal energy, hydro-power, ocean and tidal energy; renewable energy system design and economics; and socio-economic and environmental aspects f renewable energy.

This course examines our changing environment, driven largely by our linear economy (take-make-dispose). Particular emphasis is given to the ‘carbon currency’ and how carbon drives environmental change. There is an emphasis on developing solutions to environmental issues, especially to climate change adaptation and development of a circular economy. Tikanga Maori aspects of environmental change will be covered.