Scott Nicol, Sierra Club Borderlands Team chair and LRGV Sierra Club Conservation co-chair, will be speaking at the University of Texas Pan American on April 25 about the flood risks and environmental damage that will come with new border walls slated for the Rio Grande floodplain. Through Freedom of Infomation Act requests Scott has uncovered documents showing that Customs and Border Protection plans to condemn private lands and take parts of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge to build these walls. For years the US section of the International Boundary and Water Commission rejected these walls as posing too great a flood hazard to communities on both sides of the river, but a year ago they caved in to pressure from CBP and approved walls in the floodplain.
See our Guest Lecture: Environmental Investigation of Donna Reservoir and Canal Superfund Site.
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
Spring 2013 Environmental Course Offerings below
The Environmental Studies Minor has started as of Fall 2012
Environmental Studies Cluster: Students not minoring in Environmental Studies are encouraged to take some environemtnal courses as their electives. There are both undergraduate and graduate environmental courses.
RATIONALE: The need for environmental and sustainability education in many areas is great, as a variety of environmental problems pose risks, and sustainability opportunities are tremendous. We need for our workers and leaders to increase their ability to critically assess and address how we contribute to environmental problems and how we can implement measures to resolve or mitigate them.
Environmental education, while essential for environmental scientists, is for people in all walks of life. We need environmentally literate professionals, policy-makers, journalists, social workers, health providers, educators, business people, and artists.
MISSION STATEMENT: The Environmental Studies Minor promotes environmental literacy and sustainability and raises awareness of the effects of daily decisions on how we interact with animals and plants and how we use natural resources such as water, air, and soil. It takes a holistic ecological perspective, reflecting the recognition that human activities are dependent upon natural processes and that humans are a part of interconnected systems. It is broadly interdisciplinary, encompassing courses from the humanities, social sciences, health and human services, sciences, business, engineering, and public policy. It enables students to identify environmental problems, communicate across disciplines, and promote sustainable solutions. Students can explore relationships between global ecology and our South Texas environment, and also examine the relationships among social inequalities, negative environmental impacts, and environmental justice.
REQUIREMENTS: Students are required to take at least 18 semester hours (9 advanced), a minimum of 6 courses:
- one to two Environmental Science courses (A list), and
- four to five Environmental Studies courses (B and C lists).
A. Environmental Science Courses:
- GEOL 1401 Physical Geology - also meets GenEd requirement
- CHEM 1301 & 1101 General Chemistry & Lab – also meets GenEd requirement
- BIOL 2406 Environmental Biology
- ENSC 3400 Environmental Science & Policy (prerequisites: 2 core courses in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, or Geology)
- ENSC 3401 Environmental Regulations and Environmental Impact Analysis (prerequisite: ENSC 3400)
- GEOL 4302 Environmental Geology (prerequisite: GEOL 1401)
B. Environmental Studies Courses:
- PHIL 2395 Environmental Ethics
- HIST 3303 Geography and Environment
- ENG 3320 Topics in English: Environmental Literature
- ENSC 3300 Environmental Ethics
- ENSC 3301 Environmental Approaches to Sustainable Development
- POLS 3319 Environmental Policy
- ANTH 4314 Environmental Anthropology
- CRIJ 4316 Environmental Crime and Justice
- ELEE 4373 Renewable Energy (prerequisites: ELEE 2302 & ELEE 3307)
C. Additional Courses and Course Sections with an Environmental Focus (these need to be substituted in to count toward the minor):
- ENG 1301 Rhetoric & Composition (sections taught by T. Francis only) - also meets Core requirment.
- ENG 1302 Rhetoric & Composition (sections taught by T. Francis and S. Herweck) - also meets Core requirement
- ENG 2300 Introduction to Literature (sections taught by T. Francis) – also meets Core requirement
- MGMT 4300 Business and Sustainability (Kaynak)
- PUBA 4363 Politics of Scarcity and Ecology (Zemrani)
- PUBA 4363 Government and Economy (Zemrani)
- HIST 4397 Sp Top: American Environmental History (Amy Hay)
- Independent Studies and Internship courses in various department, which focus on the environment (a student could substitute one such course for an environmental studies course).
ENVIRONMENTAL COURSE OFFERINGS:
SUMMER I - 2013:
- ENG 1302 Rhetoric & Composition II: (Francis sections only) environmental reading and writing. Meets Core requirement.
- GEOL 1401 Physical Geology: comprehensive introduction to the origin, structure, materials and processes of the earth; plate tectonics, the rock cycle, landscape evolution, volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis; human dependence and effects on the earth, including pollution and global warming. Meets Core.
- BIOL 2406 Environmental Biology (Lowe): Intro to ecology, environmental problems, human impact, and possible solutions. The interaction of humans and the environment, ecosystems, biotic and abiotic components of the environment, population dynamics and sustainability, energy flow, toxicology, waste production, waste disposal, and pollution.
SUMMER II - 2013:
- CRIJ 4316 & 6316 Environmental Crime & Justice (Vincentnathan): bodily and property crimes and harms from abuse and irresponsible use of the local, regional, and global environment. Problems with identifying environmental crime and harm, and therefore victims. Governmental and non-governmental responses to environmental problems.
FALL - 2013:
- ENG 1301 Rhetoric & Composition I: (Francis sections only) environmental reading and writing. Meets Core requirement.
- ENG 1302 Rhetoric & Composition II: (Francis & Herweck sections only) environmental reading and writing. Meets Core requirement.
- GEOL 1401 Physical Geology: comprehensive introduction to the origin, structure, materials and processes of the earth; plate tectonics, the rock cycle, landscape evolution, volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis; human dependence and effects on the earth, including pollution and global warming. Meets Core.
- GEOL 1401 Physical Geology: comprehensive introduction to the origin, structure, materials and processes of the earth; plate tectonics, the rock cycle, landscape evolution, volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis; human dependence and effects on the earth, including pollution and global warming. Meets Core.
- PHIL 2395 Environmental Ethics (Anderson):
- BIOL 2406 Environmental Biology (Lowe): Intro to ecology, environmental problems, human impact, and possible solutions. The interaction of humans and the environment, ecosystems, biotic and abiotic components of the environment, population dynamics and sustainability, energy flow, toxicology, waste production, waste disposal, and pollution.
- HIST 3303 Geography & Environment (Adair): the effect of the environment and geography on history; how humanity has reacted to the environment and influenced ecosystems, and how different cultures have interacted with similar environments; trade routes, the effects of disease, the connections between resources & the rise of civilizations & empires.
- ENSC 3400 Environmental Science & Policy (Dirrigl):
- GEOL 4302 Environmental Geology (Hardage):
- ANTH 4314 & 6314 Environmental Anthropology (Vincentnathan): human/environmental interactions from various anthropological perspectives; mutual interconnectedness of people and nature. Evolutionary models, cultural ecology, systems approaches, indigenous knowlege, ethnoecology, political ecology.
Graduate Environmental Studies Courses:
- PUBA 6307 Politics of Scarcity and Ecology
Any Questions: Please email Lynn Vincentnathan, lvincent@utpa.edu or call 457-9311