IDS-4920-U03 (#17696) // EVR-4934-U02 (#18201) Dr. Thomas ...

IDS-4920-U03 (#17696) // EVR-4934-U02 (#18201) Dr. Thomas Pliske Spring, 2012
GLOBAL ENVIRONMENAL PROBLEMS AND ISSUES W/200-445 Bus. Complex 254
Date Topics Assignments___
Jan. 11 Introduction, housekeeping, Film (TBA)
18 Environmental Perspectives, personal and planetary WL/CH. 1, 2 + TED talks 1-2
25 Evolution, Systems and Sustainability (guest co-presenter, Valerie Silidker)
WL/CH. 1-2, 5 + TED talks 3-4
Feb. 1 Ecosystems and Biodiversity WL/CH. 2-4 + TED talk 5
8 Conservation tactics and strategies WL/CH. 8-9
15 Population: Earth at 7 Billion WL/ CH. 6
22 Feeding the world: Agroecosystems and their environmental impacts globally and
locally in south Florida WL/CH. 7 + film TBA
29 Sustainable agriculture (guest presenter, Prof. M. Bhat) Position Paper #1 due
Mar. 7 EXAM #1 (first hour) // Water Resources (second hour) WL/CH. 12
19 Last day to drop course with a DR grade
21 Oceans and coastal ecosystems WL/CH. 12 + TED talk 6
28 Energy Resources: WL/CH. 15-16 + TED talk 7
Apr. 3 The Atmosphere: physics and pollution WL/CH. 13
10 Global Climate change (guest presenter, Prof. Jack Parker) WL/CH. 14 + TED talks 8-9
17 Global climate change class debate
24 EXAM #2 (during final exam week) Position Paper #2 due
T. Pliske’s office hours: Wed. 115-145 and 500-530 PM in ECS-319 and at BBC in
AC1-319 MWF 945-1045 AM. Email: plisket @ fiu.edu
Text: Essential Environment, 4 th ed. 2012. by B. Withgott and M. Laposata

COURSE POLICY: GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
1. Course Perspective: By the time you finish this course, you should have a good
understanding of many of the environmental problems that we face both locally here in
south Florida and also in the global community. That understanding will necessarily be
multi-dimensional. Hopefully, your knowledge will be founded in how you come to
understand yourself as a member of the planetary community and how you feel about that
membership; for like it or not, willing or unwilling, you are already a member.
Although this is not an environmental science course, science is a major player in
shaping how we understand our environment and, as Al Gore and others have reminded
us, often reveals inconvenient truths, especially if you favor a strictly utilitarian interest
in the earth’s bounty. As a result, we need to have a clear understanding of science’s
ethics, goals and methods, since a great deal of information is available to us where
scientific process has been deliberately or ignorantly compromised in one way or another.
In significant addition to the worldview that science gives us there are others that are
of equal or even greater weight. In our exploration of the global environment we will
need to consider our spirituality, our inner or religious experience in relation to earth.
If you are a member of any indigenous culture or adhere to the philosophy of the Deep
Ecologists, this would be your primary consideration about the environment. Also, we
obviously have to include cultural economic, political and social drivers of our
environmental policies.
2. Evaluation: Your grade is determined by three factors: exams, papers and
attendance/participation in discussion.
Exams (2) 40%
Papers (2) 30%
Attendance/participation 30%
The exams cover the course content from both reading and class presentations and will be in
essay and short-answer or multiple-choice format depending on class size. The papers are based
on the subjective aspects of the course, how you feel personally about environmental issues and
how you and humanity in general should approach them. All of us will be learning from one
another over the next fifteen weeks, so attendance and participation in our group meetings is an
important part of that process.
Our grading scale is as follows
A: 92-100% A-: 85-91% B+: 80-84% B: 76-79% B-: 73-75% C+: 70-72%
C: 60-69% D+: 57-59% D: 53-56% D-: 50-52% F: less than 50%.

3. Papers: You will be writing two “position papers” during the course. The papers have
a minimum length of 1500 words and must be double-spaced. The position is your
own position on a particular issue, one at which you arrive after going deep within to
plumb your own conscience and then also after doing whatever research you need to do
to discuss the issue from the many perspectives that it involves. You will certainly have
to go to other sources besides beyond your textbook to get a balanced view, both pro and
con, of the issues you choose. Please check the syllabus for the due dates of these papers.
All papers will be submitted to Turnitin, which is a service for student papers which
detects plagiarized material. Plagiarism is the use of unoriginal statements which you pass
off as your own without giving due credit by the use or quotation marks or a bibliography. It
is a most serious form of academic misconduct and also, more seriously, an insult to your
own creativity and intelligence.
You will need to go to www. turnitin. com to set up your account. There is no charge
to you, since FIU has a contract with Turnitin. Our course name is Global Environmental
Issues and Problems, the course number is 4651408 and the password is GaiaOne
which is case-sensitive. Paper #1 can be turned in anytime until midnight on Feb. 29.
Paper #2 can be turned in any time up until midnight on Apr. 24. Failure to turn in the
papers by the deadline will result in a zero for the assignment. No papers are
acceptable unless submitted to Turnitin. When you submit, you will see that there is a
“similarity index” which is the amount of unoriginal material detected. The maximum
limit for your papers is 7%.
Your papers will be graded on how well you define and support your position and also on
how well you write to express yourself, even if you play a devil’s advocate or support an
unpopular or controversial position. If you have trouble writing without spelling,
grammatical and sentence structure errors, you may want to take the help of the Writing
Center on the first floor of the Library across from Starbuck’s.
Suggestions for formatting and writing papers are provided included in a separate section.
POSITION PAPER TOPICS
1. The Endangered Species Act gives wildlife “rights” that are not merited. 2. The
value of preserving biodiversity is secondary to promoting economic growth and
development. 3. GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) in our food supply are
perfectly safe. 4. The treatment of animals in the food industry is unconscionable
5. Environmental costs and damage should be viewed as “external” in a progressive
economy. 6. Do we overuse chemical fertilizers in agriculture? 7. Should we
try to control human population growth? 8. Why and how should the USA
decrease its carbon footprint? 9. The science on global climate change is
inconclusive. 10. Environmental regulations imposed on US industry slow the
creation of new jobs. 11. Pesticides that enter the atmosphere, soils and water are
usually diluted below threshold levels and cannot harm us or wildlife. 12. The
environment and its wildlife and resources are there for the purpose of human utility.
13. Procuring energy resources for the US is a matter of national security. 14.
Environmental education should be required in all primary and secondary schools.

Pick any two for your paper topics. If none of these suit you, I’m open to
alternatives.
4. Attendance. Since we are a colloquium, a group whose members discuss ideas and
issues, I expect you to attend regularly and to share your concerns. Since we are a twoperiod
class, you will be asked to sign in at the beginning of each hour. The sign-in
sheets will be at the front of the classroom. It is your responsibility to sign in. You may
not sign in other students, and if you sign in and leave, you will not receive credit for
attendance.
Also, things evolve and unfold as the class goes forward, and changes to assignments
or topics will be announced in class. If you’re not there, you may be wholly or partly
clueless about what’s happening.
5. TED talks and other on-line media. There are several on-line viewing assignments,
which should be done before attending class. Most of these are short (c. 20 min.), eyeopening
gulps of cutting-edge ideas and discoveries and aimed at a non-technical
audience. You can access them at www. ted. com/talks. Then search for the item
under the speaker’s name.
TED talk 1: John Rockstrom: Let the environment guide our development.
TED talk 2: Michael Specter: The danger of science denial
TED talk 3: William McDonough on cradle to cradle design
TED talk 4: Pavan Sukhdev: Put a value on Nature.
TED talk 5: E.O. Wilson on saving life on earth
TED talk 6: Capt. Charles Moore on seas of plastic
TED talk 7: Amory Lovins on willing the oil end game
TED talk 8: Al Gore warns on latest climate change
TED talk 9: James Baleg: Time-lapse proof of extreme ice loss
6. Communications. The easiest way for me to get in touch with you is through your
FIU email. Please check your FIU messages regularly for any changes in schedule,
assignments, etc.
7. Global Climate Change Debate. The last meeting on April 17 will be devoted to a
debate on global climate change, in which everyone will participate. We will discuss the
organization and structure of the debate in the first few class meetings
8. Blows and buffets of life. If you suffer ill fortune in the form of illness, family crises,
economic downturn events or other things that make it difficult to give attention to
school, attend class or complete assignments, PLEASE GET IN TOUCH WITH ME.
I’ve seen a lot in 35 years at FIU and know how to help out if you need help. You
automatically have my sympathy, but if you suffer in silence, what can I do?