This course will focus on understanding the multiple ways in which climate science is communicated to publics and how they come to understand it. In the process, we will explore ways to blunt susceptibilities to misconceptions, misconstruals, and deliberate deceptions about climate science. Forms of communication on which the class will focus include consensus statements, manifestos, commentaries, court briefs, news accounts, fact checks, op-eds, letters to the editor, speeches, and media interviews. Students will have the opportunity to interact with guest lecturers, among them leading journalists, climate activists, and climate survey analysts. Students will write letters to the editor and fact checks and will participate in mock interviews designed to increase their understanding of the nature of the interactions between journalists and climate scientists. As a class project, students will collaborate on a white paper on climate discourse fallacies to be distributed at the April 3-7 Society for Environmental Journalists annual convention (hosted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center and the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and Media). Students will interview attendees at that conference as part of the class project.

This course will focus on understanding the multiple ways in which climate science is communicated to publics and how they come to understand it. In the process, we will explore ways to blunt susceptibilities to misconceptions, misconstruals, and deliberate deceptions about climate science. Forms of communication on which the class will focus include consensus statements, manifestos, commentaries, court briefs, news accounts, fact checks, op-eds, letters to the editor, speeches, and media interviews. Students will have the opportunity to interact with guest lecturers, among them leading journalists, climate activists, and climate survey analysts. Students will write letters to the editor and fact checks and will participate in mock interviews designed to increase their understanding of the nature of the interactions between journalists and climate scientists. As a class project, students will collaborate on a white paper on climate discourse fallacies to be distributed at the April 3-7 Society for Environmental Journalists annual convention (hosted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center and the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and Media). Students will interview attendees at that conference as part of the class project.

Climate change isn’t fair. Countries and small island states that have contributed little to cause climate change are already confronting the worst impacts. This trend will continue. While wealthy countries in the Global North scramble to respond to sea level rise, drought, extreme weather, and other impacts with technological and infrastructural solutions, countries in the Global South know they won't be able to protect their vulnerable populations in that way. For them, part of the answer lies in social resilience: the ability of a community or neighborhood in a city or region to withstand and recover from climate shocks and stresses. What are the ingredients that promote social resilience? In this first-year seminar, we will take Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world, as an example. Classified as a newly industrialized developing country, Indonesia has the capacity to mount some large projects such as the decision to move the government from Jakarta to a newly created capital city on the island of Borneo. At the same time, in Jakarta and all along the coasts of the thousands of islands that make up this archipelagic nation, vulnerable communities must foster resilience within themselves. Participants in this seminar will become acquainted with Indonesia’s colonial and recent history, learn about its deep cultural resources, and engage with its current efforts to mitigate emissions and adapt to climate change. Highlights include modules on the plan to protect Jakarta, designing the new capital city, and the use of the arts to increase community resilience in urban and rural kampongs in other parts of the country.

Climate Change and The Energy Evolution In order to address the climate crisis, the global energy system is and must be rapidly reshaped over the coming decades. Much of the energy evolution will be driven by decisions made by the private sector and the institutions that provide them capital. The aim of this course is to (a) explore the relationship between international agreements on climate change, national and local government actions, and the emergence of private governance as factors driving the energy evolution and (b) provide an overview of the critical themes, players, structures, and issues in renewable energy deal making. Students in this course will work first hand with climate and renewable energy practitioners to learn how to evaluate the key factors driving decision making in energy investment today and understand the basics of how the renewable and clean energy business works.

This course will be run as an ABA simulation course. Students will be asked to participate in a variety of hands on exercises, including mock negotiations, mock client meetings, and markups of client climate reports and renewable energy transactional documents. Grading is based on a series of assignments presented throughout the semester, and there is no final exam or paper in this course.

Climate change is a sign that humans have become a force with planet-altering power. We need to understand how human societies work if we hope to respond to its dangers effectively. This course will use history to help students see climate change's social and political aspects. We'll examine how previous societies have responded to episodes of non-anthropogenic climate change, exploring market-based policies, power imbalances, and vulnerability. Through the history of science, we will investigate and critique how the growth of scientific knowledge often led climate change to be framed as a techno-scientific problem, best addressed through research and technological innovation. Students will learn how climate politics have been pushed by environmental and social justice activists, as well as by anti-communist scientists and corporate-sponsored cultivation of public doubt. Assignments will help students learn how to translate scholarly insights into engaging media that can reach various publics.

The course will exam Pacala and Socolow's hypothesis that "Humanity already possesses the fundamental scientific, technical and industrial know-how t solve the carbon and climate problem for the next half-century." Fifteen "climate stabilization wedges" i.e., strategies that each have the potential to reduce carbon emissions by 1 billion ons per year by 2054, will be examined in detail. Technology and economics will be reviewed. Socio-political barriers to mass-scale implementation will be discussed. Pacala and Socolow note "Every element in this portfoloio has passed beyond the laboratory bench and demonstration project; many are already implemented somewhere at full industrial scale".

"It’s a familiar scene: A tree arrives to the construction site, swaddled in burlap and wrapped in twine on the bed of an eighteen-wheeler that’s travelled thousands of miles to get to site. The landscape designer who carefully selected every aspect of it— its genus and species, its caliper, everything down to the proprietary cultivar—works with the landscape crew to carefully place the tree, rootball and all, into place, just so. But what geographic relationships, market forces, federal policies, horticultural ideologies, and innovations in botanical engineering led to this plant’s arrival on site? This seminar will explore the implications of an oft-overlooked agent in the supply chain of constructed landscapes— the $48 million dollar US tree and seed nursery industry.

Together, we will ask:
Where do plants in designed landscapes actually come from?
What does “native planting” even mean for plants and political boundaries on the move?
How might alternative methods of plant procurement change the way we design gardens?

The course will be structured in three sections. CLONES will trace the outlines of technical developments in horticulture by developing a visual lexicon of various methods of plant breeding, propagation, and transport. ZONES will ask students to map the geographies of the contemporary plant trade in the US and the ways in which shifting climates are changing standard planting practice. MIGRANTS will integrate landscapes of labor and narratives of native, foreign, and nationalism. Final projects will ask students to design gardens that interrogate the off-the-shelf model of planting procurement and normative dichotomies of native invasive through designing gardens alongside, and perhaps as, source landscapes.
"

In this course, we will read some of the best-loved novels of all time, written during the 19th century when the novel as we know it came to be. The 19th century industrial and economic revolutions also make it a time of rapid anthropogenic climate change, which is met with a emergent environmental consciousness. We will therefore read from at least two key perspectives: (1) to see how the novel participates in defining and prioritizing the modern concept of the individual and (2) to explore how the novel grapples with emergent ecological concepts, including contemporaneous climate change and evolving ideas about nature. Said otherwise, we will consider not only how the novel works out the question of “who am I” but also the consequences of the answer for the ecological (or anti-ecological) worldview we inherit. We will also ask whether “I” must be in tension with “we” and with “nature”; as we explore the dominant (anti-) ecological attitudes fostered by the novel-as-usual, we will also experiment with other ways of reading, designed to help us better imagine ourselves as embedded, embodied, ecological beings. This course has no pre-requisites. Required: 2 papers, 1 final paper/project, and once/twice-weekly low stakes online discussion posts. Conspicuous in-class engagement is also required.

Even the most brilliant scientists must be able to communicate clearly to effectively share their enthusiasm for their fields. Relating scientific concepts and quantitative data to colleagues is very different than sharing it with the general public. This course will show students how to refine their communication skills in crafting messages to address different audiences and genres.

From the fall of the Roman Empire to Love Canal to the epidemics of asthma, childhood obesity and lead poisoning in West Philadelphia, the impact of the environment on health has been a continuous challenge to society. The environment can affect people's health more strongly than biological factors, medical care and lifestyle. The water we drink, the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the neighborhood we live in are all components of the environment that impact our health. Some estimates, based on morbidity and mortality statistics, indicate that the impact of the environment on health is as high as 80%. These impacts are particularly significant in urban areas like West Philadelphia. Over the last 20 years, the field of environmental health has matured and expanded to become one of the most comprehensive and humanly relevant disciplines in science. This course will examine not only the toxicity of physical agents, but also the effects on human health of lifestyle, social and economic factors, and the built environment. Topics include cancer clusters, water borne diseases, radon and lung cancer, lead poisoning, environmental tobacco smoke, respiratory diseases and obesity. Students will research the health impacts of classic industrial pollution case studies in the US. Class discussions will also include risk communication, community outreach and education, access to health care and impact on vulnerable populations. Each student will have the opportunity to focus on Public Health, Environmental Protection, Public Policy, and Environmental Education issues as they discuss approaches to mitigating environmental health risks. This honors seminar will consist of lectures, guest speakers, readings, student presentations, discussions, research, and community service. The students will have two small research assignments including an Environmental and Health Policy Analysis and an Industrial Pollution Case Study Analysis. Both assignments will include class presentations. The major research assignment for the course will be a problem-oriented research paper and presentation on a topic related to community-based environmental health selected by the student. In this paper, the student must also devise practical recommendations for the problem based on their research.

Coastal and riverside cities worldwide are under increasing pressure from sea level rise and other effects of climate change. Resilience and sustainability are paradigmatic concepts for the ways in which cities address the effects associated with global warming: sea level rise, extreme weather, changing climate, and their impacts on water, food, energy, and housing. This course focuses on the cultural side of resilience and sustainability in four signature cities: Rotterdam (with areas 6 meters below sea level), Nijmegen (which has devised a new way to live with a major river), New York City (which was devastated by Hurricane Sandy), and New Orleans (one of the most vulnerable American cities). Of course, other cities (Amsterdam, Arnhem, Boston, The Hague, Houston, Miami, etc.) will also come into play. In deeply uncertain times, cities such as these confront an array of interconnected choices that involve not only infrastructural solutions, but priorities, values, and cultural predispositions. Ideally, the strategies that cities devise are generated through inclusive processes based on the understanding that resilience and sustainability should be grounded in the cultural life of their communities. When this is the case, resilience and sustainability can become unique and motivating narratives about how cities and their residents co-develop the kinds of hard, soft, and social infrastructure the climate emergency requires. With this in mind, we will analyze the cities’ climate action plans and resilience strategies; explore their cultural histories relative to flooding events; and consult with Dutch and American experts in climate adaptation, governance, community development, and design. The highlight of the course will be travel to the Netherlands during spring break for site visits and discussions with experts.

Sustainability is more than science, engineering, policy, and design. Surveying the world, we see that the politics and practice of sustainability play out in different ways depending on cultural factors. Some cultures are more prone to pursue ecological goals than others. Why? Do the environmental history and experience of a nation affect policy? Do nature and the environment play a crucial role in the cultural memory of a nation? Can cultural components be effectively leveraged in order to win approval for a politics of sustainability? And what can we, as residents of a country where climate change and global warming are flashpoints in an enduring culture war, learn from other cultures? This course is designed to equip undergraduate students with the historical and cultural tools necessary to understand the cultural aspects of sustainability in two countries noted for their ecological leadership and cultural innovation, Germany and the Netherlands. This hybrid course combines online instruction with a short-term study abroad experience in Berlin and Rotterdam. During the pre-tip online portion of the course, students will become acquainted with the cultural histories of German and Dutch attitudes toward sustainability and the environment through a combination of recorded lectures by the instructor, reading assignments, viewing assignments (documentary and feature films), threaded discussions, and short written assignments. The goal of the pre-trip instruction are to help students develop tools for analyzing and interpreting cultural difference, construct working models of German and Dutch concepts of sustainability, and formulate hypotheses about the relation between culture and policy in Germany and the Netherlands. The class will spend a total of ten days in Europe: five days in Berlin and five days in the area of Rotterdam. The days will be jam-packed with visits to important sites of sustainable practice; discussion with policy makers, activists, and scientists; and immersion in the cultures of the Netherlands and Germany. Upon our return from Europe, the class will debrief and students will present online projects. There are no prerequisites or language requirements.

This course offers students an opportunity to: 1) expand their knowledge base in health care systems; 2) develop intercultural competency skills and 3) shape a conceptual framework for improving the quality of health care for the individual, the family, the community and society at large. Emphasizes the relational, contextual nature of health care and the inseparability of the notions of the health of individuals and the health of family, society, and culture. Includes field experience. Prerequisite: Permission of instructor Seminar held in Spring, study abroad field experience held intra-session

This course offers students an opportunity to: 1) expand their knowledge base in health care systems; 2) develop intercultural competency skills and 3) shape a conceptual framework for improving the quality of health care for the individual, the family, the community and society at large. Emphasizes the relational, contextual nature of health care and the inseparability of the notions of the health of individuals and the health of family, society, and culture. Includes field experience. Prerequisite: Permission of instructor Seminar held in Spring, study abroad field experience held intra-session

Our theoretical and computational capabilities have reached a point where we can do predictions of materials on the computer. This course will introduce students to fundamenta l concepts and techniques of atomic scale computational modeling. The material will cover electronic structure theory and chemical kinetics. Several well-chosen applications in energy and chemical transformations including study and prediction of properties of chemical systems (heterogeneous, molecular, and biological catalysts) and physical properties of materials will be considered. This course will have modules that will include hands-on computer lab experience and teach the student how to perform electronic structure calculations of energetics which form the basis for the development of a kinetic model for a particular problem, which will be part of a project at the end of the course. Thermodynamics, Kinetics, Physical Chemistry, Quantum Mechanics. Undergraduates should consult and be given permission by the instructor.

Using protected lands in the Delaware Valley, this field-based course will explore various strategies for open-space conservation and protection. In addition, students will be introduced to land management techniques used on such sites to restore or preserve land trust proerties in accordace with goals set for their use or protection.Sustainable land uses such as community supported agriculture, ecovillages, and permaculture design will be covered. Emphasis will be placed on developing skills in "Reading the Landscape" to determine conservation and restoration priorities. Students will produce a site assessment report on sites that they visit.

Lecture course exploring the basic principles of architectural technology and building construction. The course is focused on building material, methods of on-site and off-site preparation, material assemblies, and the performance of materials. Topics discussed include load bearing masonry structures of small to medium size (typical row house constuction), heavy and light wood frame construction, sustainable construction practices, emerging + engineered materials, and integrated building practices. The course also introduces students to Building Information Modeling (BIM) via the production of construction documents.

The superfund law authorizes the president to respond to releases of hazardous substances into the environment in order to protect public health and the environment. This course will focus on topics related to such responses, including environmental investigation and risk assessment, environmental remediation techniques, and related topics.

Before the year 2000, "environmental management" for a business was typically driven by the need to respond to restrictions imposed by environmental regulation. But, at the dawn of the new millennium, leading businesses began to change their concept of environmental management to look beyond simply meeting governmental dictates. These organizations began to evolve and utilize "environmental strategy" to create new ways of growing their businesses by bringing sustainability to the core of their business strategies. This seismic shift in view was accompanied by a bottom line emphasis that, in some cases, turned sustainability efforts into profit centers. Sustainability increasingly is not hidden within the silo of environmental, health, and safety departments but has become much more seamlessly integrated into the operations of corporate functional disciplines. Today, to effectively work in senior management, an executive needs to be knowledgeable not only about his or her specific business function but also how his or her business will be impacted by governmental regulations, policies, corporate sustainability initiatives, green marketing regulations, industry guidelines or 'best practices', new sustainable technologies, energy planning, environmental performance metrics, and required reporting on the environmental impact of their business unit.

Conservationists were long accused of ignoring the needs of human communities. often been thought of as protecting land from people. Now, the conservation movement is embracing a different viewprotecting land with and for people. As a result innovative programs have been developed that connect people to nature, thereby helping to facilitate land conservation. This interdisciplinary course will integrate concepts in scientific method, study design, ecology, and conservation with a focus on birds in order to foster an understanding of how research can inform management of wildlife populations and communities. Topics will include wildlife management, habitat restoration, geographical information systems (GIS), sustainable agriculture, integrated land-use management, and vegetation analysis. This course will also provide opportunities for field research and application of techniques learned in the classroom.