Global Arc

An interdisciplinary exploration of our quest for urban sustainability in different parts of the world. We will: 1) Explore the concept of sustainable cities, focusing on systems that provide food, energy, water, mobility, housing, waste management, and public spaces to more than half the world's people that live in urban areas today; 2) Compare and contrast cities in the US and India, understanding their diverse contexts and current baseline in terms of infrastructure, environment, economy, health, wellbeing and equity. 3) Explore pathways to a more sustainable future, including technology innovation, policy and social entrepreneurship.

Cities, Sea Level Rise, Cities and the Environmental Humanities explores how cities worldwide will be impacted by sea level rise and how the issue is engaged in literature, art and film. Students in the seminar will learn about the environmental science and policy related to sea level rise. They will consider solutions being put forward to address the impacts, such as managed retreat; hard engineering, such as building sea walls; or soft engineering, such as preserving and restoring natural buffers, be they coral or oyster reefs, or mangrove forests. Additionally, they will engage literature, art and films about cities and sea level rise.

This course is intended to provide a modern perspective of thermodynamics for applications in engineering, geophysics and ecology for a variety of environmental systems, from the molecular to the planetary scale.

This course locates itself at the intersection and juxtaposition of medical and environmental anthropologies in order to perpetrate a double movement: how are bodies - human and other - implicated in processes often figured as environmental; and how can exploring a diverse range of embodiments might open ways into denaturalizing `environment' as simply what exists outside of bodies. How do we write about the environment, about bodies, and their relationship? Topics include climate change, toxic contamination, multispecies ethnography.

Sea Level Rise, Islands and the Environmental Humanities explores how islanders, predominantly but not exclusively in the Pacific and the Caribbean, are experiencing sea level rise and how they are engaging it in literature, art and film. Students in the seminar will also learn about the environmental science and policy related to sea level rise. They will consider solutions being put forward to address the impacts, such as managed retreat; hard engineering, such as building sea walls or artificial islands; or soft engineering, such as preserving and restoring natural buffers, be they coral or oyster reefs, mangrove marshes or wetlands.

ENV 210A offers an introduction to the scientific and technological dimensions of the nexus of global environmental problems: climate change, the carbon cycle, biodiversity loss, and food and water for 9 billion people. The course will provide students the scientific foundations to understand each of these complex environmental problems, first in isolation and then in its interaction with the others. By the completion of the course, students will be able to understand major scientific reports on the interacting environmental challenges of the 21st century. All sections of ENV 210A will meet together for lecture and precept each week.

ENV 210B offers an introduction to the scientific and technological dimensions of the nexus of global environmental problems: climate change, the carbon cycle, biodiversity loss, and food and water for 9 billion people. The course will provide students the scientific foundations to understand each of these complex environmental problems, first in isolation and then in its interaction with the others. By the completion of the course, students will be able to understand major scientific reports on the interacting environmental challenges of the 21st century. All sections of ENV 210B will meet together for lecture and lab each week.

This immersive, multimedia course invites us to come to our senses in creative ways, exploring climate crises like melting ice, rising oceans, deforestation and displacements. We will come alive to hidden worlds, kayaking the Millstone and trips to Manhattan, engaging animal and environmental studies. Through film, images and writing, we explore the vital ways environmental issues intersect with gender, race and sexualities. Themes include: wilderness; national parks; violent settler colonialism; masculinities; militarization; Indigenous knowledges; animal intelligence and emotions; slow violence; the commons; and strategies for change.