Environmental Studies

The majority of the world's population live in close proximity to the coastal zone. Coastal processes are highly dynamic and sensitive to external drivers, including long-term climate change and anthropogenic activities. Understanding these systems is important for developing appropriate coastal management strategies. Coasts (and coastal processes) therefore represent an excellent opportunity to study the interactions between humans and their physical environment. The course enhances students' understanding of environment-shaping processes and to offer advanced field-based training in the coastal environment. Including practical classes and an obligatory, reasonably priced, weekend field excursion, it encourages students to think about the ways in which process knowledge can inform coastal management.

After completing this course students are able to:
 

• judge different energy scenarios and their potential to contribute to a sustainable future.
• work with numbers, units, and diagrams to come to arguments for and against different energy systems.
• gain a basic understanding of the role of the natural sciences in society while focussing on the numerous applications in energy technology, climatology and sustainability.
• think critically about the positive and negative influences of chemistry and physics on society.

Content

After completing this course students are able to:
 

• judge different energy scenarios and their potential to contribute to a sustainable future.
• work with numbers, units, and diagrams to come to arguments for and against different energy systems.
• gain a basic understanding of the role of the natural sciences in society while focussing on the numerous applications in energy technology, climatology and sustainability.
• think critically about the positive and negative influences of chemistry and physics on society.

Content

This course provides a study of the origins, development, and main characteristics of environmental law, its ability to effectively protect the environment taking into account the real degree of enforcement. Topics include: development and nature of environmental law; international protection of the environment; the European Law and environmental law; constitutional and statutory configuration of environmental law; means of protection; instruments and techniques; environmental protection sectors.

Ecophysiology is the study of physiological adaptations of organisms in relation to the environments in which they live. It has become an increasingly important science, because an understanding of the relationship between organism and environment is essential in order to predict the effects of man-made environmental change. The physiology of an organism incorporates many of its most important adaptations to the environment in which it lives. This course considers the variety of environmental pressures imposed on organismal physiology. It examines the often ingenious solutions that evolve in response to these pressures, and how different organisms and groups of organisms have evolved different physiological means of dealing with the same problem. The course focuses both on the abiotic environment (e.g. issues related to climate, gas exchange) and the biotic environment (e.g. how digestive physiology is adapted to plant toxins). Towards the end of the course, students look at Conservation Physiology, one of the practical applications of ecophysiology. There is a particular focus on the physiological adaptations of animals. Although BIO2004 General Zoology is not a prerequisite for this course, the course is recommended before taking Ecophysiology.

This course examines needs and inter-dependencies of all beings; the diverse ways humans meet their needs through material and non-material means and the ecological and social consequences of this for humans and other beings; the economic, social and political norms that shape the ways we meet our needs; and the ethical and disciplinary frameworks through which the sustainability of human-environmental relationships can be assessed.

Slow Food is a movement whose philosophy is defined by three interconnected principles: good, clean, fair - where “slower/better” is promoted over “faster/cheaper.” This course examines how Slow Food started initially as a protest against McDonalds opening in Rome to igniting a global revolution in such diverse sectors as tourism, education, and city planning. The course studies how Slow Food governance advocates ecological and political awareness, equitable food policy, and sustainable practices that are not only good for the planet, but as the commercial success of Eataly has demonstrated, business as well. Through case studies such as Eataly, but also visits to local farms and interviews with local producers and distributers, the course examines how Slow Food philosophy intersects with business practices. This course aims to assess what happens when the tenets of sustainability, responsibility, and sharing are combined with the value proposition to provide a unique cultural experience that exports the Italian way of life on a global scale. What is the bottom line: has tradition met innovation, or exploitation?