Over the course of six Sunday field trips, we will travel from the barrier islands along the Atlantic Ocean in southern New Jersey to the Pocono Mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania, visiting representative sites of the diverse landscapes in the region along the way. At each site we will study and consider interactions between geology, topography, hydrology, soils, vegetation, wildlife, and disturbance. Students will summarize field trip data in a weekly site report. Evening class meetings will provide the opportunity to review field trips and reports and preview upcoming trips. Six all-day Sunday field trips are required.

This class will introduce the overlaps between religion and ecology. Rather than assuming that there is a necessary positive or negative relationship between religion and ecology, we will look at how these relationships have materialized in complicated ways at different moments in history. We'll consider perspectives and case studies from a range of different moments in history. We'll consider perspectives and case studies from a range of different traditions, with a special attention paid to the genesis of the field of Religion and Ecology in critiques of Christian attitudes toward the environment in the 1960s and 1970s.

Urban development has been influenced by religious conceptions of social and economic justice. Progressive traditions within Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Baha'i, Humanism and other religions and systems of moral thought have yielded powerful critiques of oppression and hierarchy as well as alternative economic frameworks for ownership, governance, production, labor, and community. Historical and contemporary case studies from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East will be considered, as we examine the ways in which religious responses to poverty, inequality, and ecological destruction have generated new forms of resistance and development

PPEH Info This course can be tagged as an elective for the minor and as fulfilling the minor's public engagement component. In this course, we will interrogate the term "remediation" as meaning both environmental restoration and media representation. Students will be introduced to the fields of ecocriticism and ecomedia by examining how a variety of materials -from bestselling books to billboards, documentaries, and websites - have informed the cultural imagination of the environment. Students will also discover how media communications and publications can help to remediate the environment in the face of climate catastrophe. Weekly readings will include touchstone works of environmental scholarship and literature including Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower. We will also examine non-print media such as NHPR's podcast Windfall and experimental work such as Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel's film, Leviathan. Course readings (and viewings and listenings and lookings) as well as assignments will emphasize publicly engaged work. Throughout the semester, students will be tasked with creating small- and large-scale creative publications that communicate with and about the environment- from zines to Tik Toks to protest banners. For their final project, students will have the opportunity to create a publication in collaboration with a community organization that serves the public. We will ask questions such as: How does one effectively collaborate with a multi-faceted organization? How does one identify and reach an audience? What publics do publications serve? And which media are best suited to environmental remediation?

This course will introduce students to the principles of remote sensing, characteristics of remote sensors, and remote sensing applications. Image acquisition, data collection in the electromagnetic spectrum, and data set manipulations for earth and environmental science applications will be emphasized. We will cover fundamental knowledge of the physics of remote sensing; aerial photographic techniques; multispectral, hyperperspectral, thermal, and other image analysis. Students will pursue an independent research project using remote sensing tools, and at the end of the semester should have a good understanding and the basic skills of remote sensing.

This course covers engineering concepts for renewable energy processes. Fundamental engineering calculations for solar, wind, biofuel, geothermal, and hydroelectric energy production in comparison to oil and gas will be covered. Electric vehicles and energy storage will be discussed. Students will consider the specific needs of public health, safety and welfare in addition to global , cultural, social, environmental and economic factors will be in a particular country for a group project.

The objective is to introduce students to the major aspects of renewable energy, with its foundations in technology, association to economics, and impacts on ecology and society. This introduction is intended both for general education and awareness and for preparation for careers related to this field. The course spans from basic principles to applications. A review of solar, wind, biomass, hydroelectric, geothermal energy, and prospects for future energy systems such as renewable power generation in space. Prerequisite: Junior standing

This course is a comprehensive introduction to the climate emergency and the tools with which we can fight it. It will integrate natural science, social science, philosophy of science, history, ethics, and policy. The course opens with an overview of the historical discovery of global warming and our contemporary understanding of climate change. We then turn to the framework that the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has developed to study climate risks, focusing on both general issues and case studies throughout the world. The existence and severity of these risks raises questions of climate justice at many levels: individuals to individuals, countries to countries, and the present generation to future generations. We will study these issues in detail, and then examine the policy tools developed to address them. Although we will discuss national and sub-national policy and policy proposals such as the Green New Deal, special attention will be given to global policy tools, especially the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement. In addition to standard writing assignments, students will have a chance to develop policy proposals that address the core issues of the class.

This seminar explores a broad range of topics around the subject of Resilience and Sustainability. We will use a green infrastructure property development currently under construction in real time as our focus, Project Energos, a massive green field site in Nevada by Los Angeles developer TerraScale. This research seminar will support a subsequent 700-level studio offering in Fall. Students are welcome to enroll in this seminar with or without taking the studio. The subject is relevant to all students interested in understanding how action is currently being taken in the United States through a global lens advancing a resilient agenda.

This course uses the global business context to introduce students to important legal, ethical and cultural challenges they will face as business leaders. Cases and materials will address how business leaders, constrained by law and motivated to act responsibly in a global context, should analyze relevant variables to make wise decisions. Topics will include an introduction to the basic theoretical frameworks used in the analysis of ethical issues, such as right-based, consequentialist-based, and virtue-based reasoning, and conflicting interpretations of corporate responsibility. The course will include materials that introduce students to basic legal (common law vs. civil law) and normative (human rights) regimes at work in the global economy as well as sensitize them to the role of local cultural traditions in global business activity. Topics may also include such issues as comparative forms of corporate governance, bribery and corruption in global markets, human rights issues, diverse legal compliance systems, corporate responses to global poverty, global environmental responsibilities, and challenges arising when companies face conflicting ethical demands between home and local, host country mores. The pedagogy emphasizes globalized cases, exercises, and theoretical materials from the fields of legal studies, business ethics and social responsibility.

This course delves into various approximations of the Rights of Nature movement. It specifically examines a range of legal actions that have arisen to safeguard life and emphasize human relationships with non-human entities. The course is particularly dedicated to dissecting a range of legal strategies that have come into existence to ensure the preservation of life forms beyond just humans, forging a profound connection between humanity and the diverse entities that constitute the natural world. The course will concentrate on Latin American cases as a burgeoning global movement, although the philosophical and theoretical exploration extends far beyond this region. Some topics we will discuss in class are: Earth Law and the Rights of Nature; Bringing Nature to Court and the Law; and Animal Rights. For instance, are animals part of the Rights of Nature movement?  By analyzing these legal actions, students will understand how legal systems can be leveraged as powerful environmental conservation and advocacy tools. Students will also learn the importance of bridging the legal practice with how the social sciences approach these questions. 

This course will introduce students to concepts in risk governance. We will delve into the three pillars of risk analysis: risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication. The course will spend time on risk financing, including insurance markets. There will be particular emphasis on climate risks, although the course will also discuss several other examples, including pandemics, biodiversity loss, and systemic risks, among others. The course will cover how people perceive risks and the impact this has on risk communication and management. We will explore public policy surrounding risk management and how the public and private sectors can successfully work together to build resilience, particularly to changing risks.

This course will introduce students to concepts in risk governance. We will delve into the three pillars of risk analysis: risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication. The course will spend time on risk financing, including insurance markets. There will be particular emphasis on climate risk management, including both physical impact risk and transition risk, although the course will also discuss several other examples, including management of environmental risks, terrorism, and cyber-security, among other examples. The course will cover how people perceive risks and the impact this has on risk management. We will explore public policy surrounding risk management and how the public and private sector can successfully work together to build resilience, particularly to changing risks.

How do government policy-makers make decisions about potential threats to human health and the environment in the face of scientific uncertainty? The course develops the concept of Risk Assessment from the publication of the 1983 National Research Council (NRC) report commonly known as the "Red Book" which was used to rank the initial hazardous waste sites under the Superfund program. Using a variety of teaching tools, including lectures, panel discussions, and case studies, the course examines how public policy decisions regarding environmental risk are made and how effective those decisions are at reducing risks to affected populations. The course focuses on the complex interaction of science, economics, politics, laws, and regulations in dealing with environmental and public health risks. The course will begin with a review of the policy process and methods used in evaluating human health and environmental risks, including the traditional steps in the risk assessment process, including quantitative and qualitative aspects of hazard identification, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment, and risk characterization. The course will then focus on how scientific uncertainty, risk perceptions, socio-economic disparities, risk communication, and politics influence environmental risk-based decision-making. Issues such as special populations (e.g., children, elderly, immune-compromised, woman of pregnancy age, etc.) must be considered when developing risk reduction strategies. The use of the "precautionary principle" will be discussed in the context of different types of environmental stressors (e.g., pesticides, chemicals, climate change, air pollution, water quality, and land use) and how this important controversial principle is applied differently in contrasting national and European risk management policies.

Like many cities, Philadelphia was built and developed around rivers. These rivers historically provided drinking water, food, power, trade routes, and recreation. Human development, however, has led to flooding, erosion and pollution; these factors degrade the ability of rivers to provide ecological habitat, and ultimately may turn rivers from a resource into a hazard. Unfortunately, lower income neighborhoods often bear the brunt of these negative impacts. In the face of climate change, extreme floods and erosion are only getting worse. The news, however, is not all bad. With improving understanding of environmental science and engineering, techniques that counteract flooding and clean up waterways are being developed and deployed. Armed with knowledge of science, citizens can become agents of change in their communities. It is in this context that we propose a partnership among Sayre High School, Penn’s Netter Center, and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, to develop an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course on “Rivers in a changing world”. We seek to take advantage of the newly refurbished Cobbs Creek Environmental Center, which will host a brand new environmental laboratory space. A Project for Progress award from Penn has provided additional funding for state of the art equipment, including a “stream table”; this is a laboratory river that allows interactive and discovery-driven learning. The unique setting of an environmental river laboratory that is just steps from a natural river (Cobbs Creek), and close to Sayre High School, presents a special opportunity for meaningful hands-on learning of Sayre students in collaboration with Penn undergraduates. Course material will be co-developed between Sayre and Penn participants, so that learning modules in the laboratory and natural river are connected to curriculum objectives. Sayre is a Netter Center university-assisted community school and Mr. Smith has worked with Penn students in his classrooms for many years. He has a desire to bring students to the Cobbs Creek Environmental Education Center for hands-on real world environmental education and problem solving. Therefore, this is an ideal partnership for this ABCS course. Also, there is also a need for more climate-related classes at Penn and this course addresses that need.

This course provides an introduction to the many forces that shape what we eat.These include psychological, political, biological, legal, economic, and social influences. We will discuss and critically evaluate sceintific research on food policies designed to improve the world's diet. This course will have strong focus on the communication of health information and issues of health disparities as they relate to food environments and food policies. In addition, course assignments, activities, and lectures are designed to develop skills related to critiquing research and communicating evidence-based opinions in a clear and compelling manner.

Many regard Germany as a leader in the transition to renewable energy. The Green Party has been a significant player in federal and local politics since 1981. The current Austrian chancellor is a member of the Green Party. Soon, Germany will shutter its last nuclear reactor. Work on the coal phase-out has already begun. Germans overwhelmingly support aggressive climate action by their government. How can we explain this? In this course, we will become familiar with current climate, environmental, and energy policy and practice in Germany and Austria, but we will also delve into the cultural history of German environmentalism. We'll learn about the origin of the German concept of sustainability in early 18th-century forestry; the role of the forest in Romanticism; the origin of the concepts of ecology and environment in the work of Ernst Haeckel and Jacob von Uexkull; the role of the mountains in Austrian environmental thinking; Nazi-era environmentalism; "Waldsterben," the anti-nuke movement and the rise of the Green Party; the "Energiewende"; and the impact of the uprising to protect the Hambacher Forest on the coal phase-out. We'll make use of readings from policy, history, and literature, and screen feature and documentary films. This course is taught in German.

Precious metals have shaped pre-Colombian economies and socio-cultural processes in the Americas for thousands of years. After 1492, gold and silver sent from the "New World" to the "Old World" played a key role in changing economies all over the world. Locally, mining centers were places marked by forced labor, conspicuous consumption, and the destruction of ecosystems. Internationally, gold and silver prices have long had outsized effects on monetary and trade policies. This course uses case studies to delve into the fascinating history of precious metals and mining in North and South America. We will analyze documents describing the gold objects ransacked by Spanish conquistadors, examine 17th Century proto-industrial silver mining at Potosi, trace the impact and human cost of the huge gold strikes in Minas Gerais, in colonial Brazil, read new work on the California and Yukon moments of "rush" and their long-term impact on US monetary policy, and follow new reports about the conflicts at the heart of transnational gold mining in the present. Students will gain experience working with primary sources and will produce an in-depth research paper.

This is a course on creating a business to attack a social problem and thereby accomplish both social impact and financial sustainability. For this course, social entrepreneurship is defined as entrepreneurship used to profitably confront social problems. This definition therefore views social entrepreneurship as a distinct alternative to public sector initiatives. The basic thesis is that many social problems, if looked at through an entrepreneurial lens, create opportunity for someone to launch a venture that generates profits by alleviating that social problem. This sets in motion a virtuous cycle - the entrepreneur is incented to generate more profits and in so doing, the more the profits made, the more the problem is alleviated. Even if it is not possible to eventually create a profit-making enterprise, the process of striving to do so can lead to a resource-lean not-for-profit entity. Creating a profitable social entrepreneurship venture is by no means a simple challenge. Cross-listed with MGMT 812.

What role can business play in helping to meet global societal needs, whether it involves the environment, improving health, expanding education or eradicating poverty? Is there any responsibility on the part of business to help meet those needs? What are models of successful business engagement in this area? How should success be measured? Are there limits to what businesses can and should do, and what institutional changes will enable businesses and entrepreneurs to better succeed? This survey course provides students the opportunity to engage in the critical analysis of these and other questions that lie at the foundation of social impact and responsibility as an area of study. The course involves case studies, conceptual issues, and talks by practitioners. The course is designed to help students develop a framework to address the question: How should business enterprises and business thinking be engaged to improve society in areas not always associated with business? The course is required for the secondary concentration in Social Impact and Responsibility